St. Patrick’s Day 10K : Barrios Shatters Record, Following in Footsteps of Fellow Mexican Runners

It has been a good couple of weekends for running coach Tadeusz Kepka. Last Sunday, 7 of the top 10 men in the Los Angeles Marathon were Mexican runners coached by Kepka, including the winner, Martin Mondragon. The women’s winner, Blanca Jaime, is also coached by Kepka, who is from Poland.

Sunday, another of Kepka’s star pupils, Arturo Barrios of Mexico, shattered a course record with a time of 28:17, against a large field of world-class athletes competing at the ninth annual Tom Sullivan St. Patrick’s Day 10-kilometer run in Torrance.

The previous course record of 29:19 was set by Thom Hunt in 1987.

Scotland’s Liz McColgan, (formerly Liz Lynch), won the women’s division with a time of 31:44, also breaking a course record of 33:15 set in 1987 by Lisa Martin.

McColgan, who finished 39 seconds in front of second-place Anne Audain of New Zealand (32:23), has run the women’s world-best time for a 10K on the roads, with a time of 30:59 last month in Orlando, Fla.

Barrios holds the men’s world-best time for a 10K road race, with 27:41 at Phoenix in 1986. Unlike most top running events, race officials said the Tom Sullivan 10K paid no appearance fees, and yet it was able to assemble the largest number of world-class athletes ever to race in a 10K in the L.A. area. In this Olympic year, one world-class entrant seemed to lead to another, offering athletes the opportunity to test their individual training status in a top competitive arena.

Barrios chose this 10K in particular because Kepka, still in town from the L.A. Marathon, had never seen his student run a road race. Barrios lives in Boulder, Colo., and Kepka lives in Mexico City.

“Barrios ran a very logical race,” Kepka said. “He had to take control early because there were too many fast runners in the race who could kick in at the end.”

Barrios stayed in the forefront of the pack for the first 3 miles, running with U.S. rival John Gregorek, but behind Kenya’s Gabrial Kamaw, England’s Mark Roberts and San Diego’s Terry Cotton.

Then, midway through the third mile, Barrios made his break, accelerating to a 60-yard lead, and crossing the finish line about 100 yards in front of second-place finisher Kamaw (28:32) and the third-place Cotton (28:33).

“There were so many fast runners, I knew I had to make my break early,” Barrios said. “With 3 miles left I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to take a chance and go . . . and I never looked back.”

Had Barrios looked back, he would have needed binoculars to see the other runners. In the two previous times that Gregorek and Barrios have raced against each other, Gregorek has beaten Barrios once and finished second to him once. In Sunday’s race, Gregorek tried to catch him, but didn’t have a chance.

“I didn’t make my move on Barrios until the fourth mile, and by that time he was too far ahead,” Gregorek said. “Then I blew my chances to finish second or third by pressing too hard to catch up.”

Gregorek finished fourth with a time of 28:42.

Barrios and McColgan each won $3,000.

But not all the world-class athletes were at the race to run. Mark Plaatjes, the South African expatriate who finished third in last week’s marathon, was there to see his friend Barrios.

“I have trained a few times with Barrios in Boulder, and I wanted to see him race,” said Plaatjes, who prior to the race predicted Barrios would win.

“Barrios is a very intelligent runner,” Plaatjes said. “He selects his races carefully, and when he decides to race, he goes. He concentrates on that race. Next week, for example, most all these other runners will be in New Bedford (for a race), but Barrios won’t.”

That’s good news for the other runners.

In the women’s division, Lisa Weidenbach (32:44) and Nancy Ditz (33:27), finished third and fifth respectively. Both are top candidates to represent the United States in the marathon at the Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea. Canada’s Angela Chalmers finished fourth at 32:49.

The St. Patrick’s Day 10K was created nine years ago by Tom Sullivan, who has been blind since birth. The race has raised about $100,000 annually for the Family Center for Blind Children.