By David Rogers. MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, Minn. — Running a single mile in four and a half minutes is something a lot of people wish they could do, but relative few ever achieve it. Running a 4:40 mile pace over 10 consecutive miles puts you in elite company. And that is exactly where ZAP Endurance team member Andrew Colley is after placing 7th in the U.S. 10-Mile Championships, finishing the course in a blistering 46:47.
Colley lowered the long-standing ZAP club record for the 10-mile distance by a second, one of four ZAP Endurance athletes competing in the U.S. 10-Mile Championships.
ZAP teammate and former Appalachian State star harrier Tristan Van Ord lowered the club record on the women’s side by an astonishing 45 seconds, finishing what ZAP head coach Pete Rea described as a “hilly” course between the Twin Cities in 9th place among the 36 elite runners qualified to run in the women’s championship division. Her time of 53:13 was just a minute and a half behind Concord, Mass.-based winner, Fiona O’Keeffe’s 51:42.
ZAP Endurance had yet another Top 10 finisher in the men’s race. Josh Izewski ran the course in 47:06, exactly on one minute after Colorado Springs resident Hillary Bor (46:06) and only 19 seconds behind Colley’s ZAP club record pace.
Coming back from injury, one of ZAP’s top men’s team members, Tyler Pennel, showed steady progress in getting back to elite form by finishing 30th among the 48 elite athletes competing, in 48:38.
The U.S. 10-Mile Championships were run concurrently with the Medtronic Twin Cities 10-Mile open race, in which 8,469 road racers competed, 3,042 men and 5,401 women.
Colley runs with the leaders from the start
After watching the race first hand in the Twin Cities on Sunday, ZAP head coach Pete Rea said, “With this performance, Andrew Colley made an emphatic return to road racing in his first competitive run since April. He ran upfront in a very strong men’s field from the gun, passing the halfway point (5 miles) marker in a swift 23:17. By then, the lead pack was down to just 8 men, including Andrew.
“Between Mile 4 and Mile 7,” Rea added, “the course between Minneapolis and St. Paul is a grinding, long steady climb and that is where the lead pack began to splinter apart. Andrew found himself battling, really, between a string of runners over the final miles and into the sharp downhill finish.”
Van Ord runs within herself, avoids early burnout pace
On the women’s side, Rea said Van Ord took a slightly different approach compared to Colley’s race strategy.
“Tristin laid off an incredibly aggressive early pace in the women’s race,” Rea recalled for High Country Sports. “She clipped off nearly identical of 26:38 and 26:35, not cracking the top 10 until passing some of the early, exhausted leaders until she reached the crest of the climb at around the 7-mile mark. This is her second consecutive Top 10 finish at a U.S. Championship since joining the ZAP team.
Van Ord placed 8th on Sept. 5 at the U.S. 20k Championships hosted in New Haven, Conn. Since joining the ZAP roster of elite runners after graduating from App State in 2017, she has steadily lowered her personal bests, including four of her five primary distances in 2022 alone: 5,000m (15:45), 10 Miles (53:13), Half Marathon (1:12.31) and Marathon (2:29.32).
Izewski also takes measured approach with slightly slower pace in the last 5 miles
“For Sunday’s race in the Twin Cities, Josh followed Tristin’s more measured approach,” said Rea. “He passed the 5-mile marker in 23:29, then moved into the Top 10 by calling on his reserves to finish strong over the final mile of the race. His finishing time of 47:06 improved his personal best for the distance by nearly 20 seconds.”
