You'll notice something a little different about the elite runners in Sunday's 33rd annual Utica Boilermaker Road Race.
A lot of them will be Americans.
“We have more Americans than ever,” said Dick Mattia, the Boilermaker's coordinator of elite runners. “It's because of people who have finished high in past races, plus new people who are running strong.”
There currently are 49 in the elite field, and 22 are Americans. They include Lucas Meyer, who earned $1,000 as the top American male in last year's race and finished ninth overall in 45 minutes, 27 seconds to earn another $600.
The field also includes defending men's and women's champions Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco and Alice Timbilili of Kenya, and defending men's masters champion Joseph Koech of Kenya.
More than 13,100 runners have registered for the Boilermaker, the most ever in a race that began with 930 entries in 1978. The men's and women's open winners will earn $6,000, with declining amounts paid down to $500 for 10th place. The masters winners will get $1,500 apiece, and the second through fifth finishers will earn lesser amounts, down to $200.
The top three Americans in the men's and women's open races who finish among the top 20 overall will earn $1,000, $500 and $300.
The Boilermaker offers $40,000 in prize money.
Meyer, a former Yale University All-American who ran his first marathon at Boston in April and finished in 2:21:29 (24th overall), heads a good group of Americans, including Andrew Cloke, who was 13th last year in 47:01, and former SUNY Geneseo star Melissa White, who last raced here in 2008.
Still, there are plenty of international runners, including the Kenyans, Moroccans and Ethiopians who have dominated the race the last two decades.
“It's a strong field, consistent with all the PRRO races,” said Mattia, referring to the circuit of which the Boilermaker is a member, along with the Lilac Bloomsday in Spokane, the World's Greatest 10K in San Juan, the Cherry Blossom 10-Mile in Washington, D.C., and the Peachtree Road Race 10K in Atlanta.
The fact that the Boilermaker has a big field of American runners, Mattia said, does not take away from the international flavor of the race.
“It's a trend we've been moving toward,” he said. “We haven't been cutting back on international runners, but we're trying to grow the number of Americans and help American runners.”
Still, African runners own the Boilermaker, and have for a long time. Every men's open winner since 1992 has been a Kenyan, Moroccan or Ethiopian, and most of the women's open winners since 1996 have been Kenyans and Ethiopians, with the exceptions being Constantina Dita and Lidia Simon, both from Romania, in 2002 and 2007, respectively.
Harroufi and Timbilili kept those streaks alive last year. Harroufi won his first Boilermaker by stalking Bazu Worku Hayla of Ethiopia the last three miles and blowing past him in the last 30 yards and finishing in 43:56. Timbilili and countrywoman Irene Limika ran most of the race together, and Timbilili won by a second, finishing in 49:32.
Hayla is not back this year, but Limika is. Timbilili was second to Lineth Chepkurui at Peachtree July 4.
Not that Harroufi won't be challenged. He did not run well at Peachtree, finishing 12th, 29 seconds back of Gebre Gebremariam. Gebremariam will not be here, but Peter Kurui, who was second by a half stride, will be. So will Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, who was third in Atlanta, and Kenya's Shadrack Kosgei, fourth.
Among the masters runners will be Anne Hare of New Zealand, who finished second in the women's open race to Rosali Machado of Brazil in 1995.
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