Viking alum Sarah Crouch finishes as top American at Bank of America Chicago Marathon in new personal best...
Crouch, who attended high school at Hockinson HS near Vancouver, was overlooked by most in the elite field in Chicago, especially with the pre-race hype surrounding Olympic triathlon champion Gwen Jorgensen, competing for the Portland-based Nike Bowerman TC, running her first serious marathon.
No big deal.
Crouch was in a group of about four American women including Jorgensen and Laura Thweatt through the early part of the race, running 5k splits between 17:37 and 17:59 through the first 30 kilometers of the race, with Crouch leading the group of Americans at the half-marathon mark at 1:15:10.
However, before the 10-mile mark, Thweatt dropped out of the race with an Achilles tendon injury.
Despite running the last two 5k segments in over 18 minutes each (18:13 at 35k, and 18:41 through 40k), Crouch hung on to cross the finish line in 2:32:37, seven seconds better than her personal best of 2:32:44, set in Chicago in the 2014 race.
The 29-year old, who was a Division II All-American on the track and cross country at Western Washington, and now lives and trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, earned $15,000 for finishing as the top American.
Crouch, who is sponsored by Chinese shoe and apparel brand 361°, finished sixth overall, matching her placing from the 2014 race, with fellow American Taylor Ward seventh in 2:32:42. Two other Americans made the top ten, with Kate Landau eighth in 2:33:24, and Marci Klimik rounding out the top ten in 2:34:53.
In the weeks leading up to the race, Crouch had a bit of a scare, after having surgery to remove a benign tumor from her quadricep muscle.
At the post-race press conference, Crouch said, “I was on about 2:30 pace until maybe mile 23 and had a very rough last couple of miles.”
“I put myself in a good enough position that fortunately no other American women were able to catch me. About 100 meters to go, I glanced over my shoulder and I was like, ‘Ah, that’s a woman.’ I kicked pretty darn hard. I had no idea who it was. I didn’t even know my own name at that point.”
Crouch is contemplating running in the California International Marathon in Sacramento in December.
Brigid Kosgei from Kenya was the women’s winner in 2:18:35, followed by Roza Dereje of Ethiopia in 2:21:18, and Shure Demise of Ethiopia was third in 2:22:15.
Former Nike Oregon Project member and double-double Olympic 5000 & 10000 meter champion Mo Farah from Great Britain won the men’s race in 2:05:11 to set a new European record, followed by Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia in 2:05:24. Current Nike Oregon Project member Suguru Osako of Japan was third in a national record of 2:05:50, while teammate and Olympic marathon bronze medalist Galen Rupp was fifth at 2:06:21 as the top American.
Courtesy of letsrun.com, here is a post-race video interview with Sarah.
Complete results of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon are available here.
NOTE: The Bank of America Chicago Marathon contributed to this report.
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