Halverson Wins 10K With a Late Surge

It was no surprise that John Halverson on Sunday led the field most of the way in the second Arturo Barrios 10K around this city’s rejuvenated marina area. After all, Halverson is Runners World magazine’s reigning road runner of the year.

The surprise was the guy chasing Halverson, someone from Albuquerque, N.M., who was doing a good impression of Wile E. Coyote. Aaron Ramirez shadowed Halverson for more than five of the 6.2 miles, at times abreast of the favorite and at times just off his shoulder.

In the cartoons, the Coyote never catches his prey. His downfall this time was one last surge Halverson made on G Street that left Ramirez looking appropriately disheveled.

Halverson’s winning time was 28 minutes 23 seconds; Ramirez finished second in 28:32.

Four others finished under 29 minutes: American Bill Reifsnyder (28:49), South African Mark Platjes (28:51), Mexican Martine Pitayo (28:56) and Wales native Steve Jones (28:57).

The winner of the women’s race was Ramirez’s girlfriend, Shelly Steely.

Steely, who had no competition after the third mile, won in 32:48. One of two Soviet runners, Olga Nazarkina, who set a junior world record last year in the 10,000 meters at 32:25.74, finished second in 33:21.

Others finishing under 34 minutes were Nancy Ditz (33:26), Sylvia Mosqueda (33:38) and Soviet Nadezhda Iljina (33:52).

The first-place finishers each received $4,000, with $2,400 for second place and $1,200 for third. The prize money stretched all the way to the ninth-place runners, each of whom earned $100.

Halverson has won three road races in as many weeks--and one of these days he’s going to get serious about it.

“I’m still running over 100 miles a week,” he said. “These are just training runs, really. I’m just building confidence for (track season) next year.”

Except on this little practice jaunt, he had some unexpected competition from Ramirez. Four times Halverson tried to shake Ramirez, and four times Ramirez picked up his pace.

“I made some surges just to see who was strong in the race,” Ramirez said. “Then I’d look back to see who was still in it.”

And each time there was Ramirez.

“I just couldn’t get rid of him,” Halverson said.

Until, that is, Halverson, a Norwegian who now resides in Ottawa, made his fifth and final move with about a mile to go.

Ramirez couldn’t match it as he began to sway slightly from side to side.

As for Ramirez, he said he couldn’t have asked for more out of himself, having returned to training late last month.

“I made a good race of it,” he said. “You’ve got to be mentally tough to win these things, and being mentally tough is hard to do when someone keeps making surges on you and when someone looks good doing it.”

The invitational race followed five- and 10-kilometer runs in which approximately 2,500 people participated.