RACE RESULTS

CIGNA FALMOUTH ROAD RACE ONE MILE RUN

Riley sets record 3:57.07; Willard edges Mortimer in women's race

From the Cape Cod Times
FALMOUTH — The hope this morning is for a "local" — read American — winner of the Falmouth Road Race.
The omens were outstanding last night as a Brookline High graduate crashed the 4-minute-mile barrier for the men and a former Woods Hole waitress won the women's version of the 12th annual CIGNA Falmouth Mile. Jonathan Riley (Brookline class of '97) defeated training partner Chris Solinsky with a new meet-record time of 3:57.07. The time earned Riley the winner's check of $1,000 and a time bonus of $500. It also sent meet director John Carroll home to research if Riley's time was the fastest in the United States this year. Alexis Sharangabo set the old mark (3:57.82) in 2000. Solinsky got $500 for his second-place finish but missed the time bonus with a 4:00.1.
Anna Willard of Greenwood, Maine, sprinted up the finishing straight to win the women's race.

Anna Willard outsprints Amy Mortimer to win her first CIGNA Falmouth Mile.

Jonathan Riley set a meet record 3:57.07.

A little more than a half-hour before the men's race, Riley and Solinsky were contemplating their tactics for a race without a "rabbit" to set the early pace. Canadian Kevin Dunbar volunteered to do it. He took the field with splits of :29.5 at 200 meters, 57.5 at 400 and 1:28.6 before pulling wide coming out of the bottom curve of lap two. Brad Lowery led at the half (1:58.9) and Solinsky led Riley at the bell (3:00.1). Riley took the lead in the backstretch.
Solinsky, who ran in Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday, said he wasn't "too upset to lose to (Riley)."
The wind didn't bother the field "but mostly we were worried about having a rabbit." Riley actually had been pointing more toward 5K events this season, but "I set a personal best in a 5K two weeks ago and then in the last two weeks I've been doing speed training." The combination of speed and endurance paid off.
Riley has a handful of sub-4 miles to his credit, but this bested his prior best of 3:58.7 and was his best in nine years. "It's great to know I can do this, and it will give me confidence going into the Olympic trials," Riley said. The women's race didn't have a rabbit, leading to a tightly bunched field for about 1,400 yards.
Willard was overheard saying to Michelle Sikes afterward: "When I saw the half in 2:25, I said 'we've got to go.' If I had been running in Europe I'd have taken it out a bit faster." Willard, who missed the European season with an ankle injury, then got caught in traffic. Willard was a waitress at the Fish Monger in Woods Hole after her sophomore year at Brown University at a time when earning money on the Cape was more important than running competitively was. "I wasn't as serious about my running then. I try not to think I'm running for money I'm trying to think I'm running for fun."
Sikes got the biggest pre-race cheer when it was announced she would be a 2007 Rhodes Scholar. She admitted there was no contest what her father was more excited about — making the USA team for the World Championships later this month in Japan or the scholarship. "My dad doesn't know the difference between a 5K and two miles, but they are the same skill set, self-confidence," Sikes said.
"You've got to do your class work every day and you can't skip a workout."

View Photos: http://www.eliterunning.com/photos/index.php?g2_itemId=92051
Video of races: http://www.letsrun.com/2007/mile0811.php

WOMEN