By David Rogers. HARTFORD, Conn. — Seven weeks out from her next full marathon race, Blowing Rock-based ZAP Endurance team member Annmarie Tuxbury (1:13:24) had a nice “warmup” outing on Oct. 19, winning the women’s division of the Eversource Hartford Half Marathon, crossing the finish line 63 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Anna Oeser (No. 2, 1:14:27) of Brookline, Mass.
Tuxbury wasn’t the only ZAP pedigreed athlete among the top performers. Former team member Whitney Macon, now an assistant distant running coach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), finished No. 3 (1:14:57).
“It was a good performance by Annmarie today,” said ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea. “She is tuning up for the California International Marathon in Sacramento, on Dec. 8. This was a good test for her against a strong field of runners, mostly from the New England area.”
Among the most impressive notes about Tuxbury’s race is that while she finished No. 1 among a field of almost 2,000 women, but she finished No. 25 among the total field of almost 4,000 distance running athletes, including the men.
While Tuxbury ran a good part of the race alone, without anyone pushing her, the finishing time of 1:13:24 for the 13+ miles was only 86 seconds off this past year’s 1:12 women’s qualifying time for a half marathon pointing to the U.S. Olympic Trials-Marathon.
