SAUCONY
Kansas City Smoke has recently chose to partner with Saucony for their racing apparal. We will be racing in the new Grey/White Phantom singlet and the Black Inferno racing shorts.
KU RELAYS
This past week Several KC Smoke athletes participated in the Kansas Relays. We had five athletes in the 1500m and one in the 5000m. The highlight for us was Mike Hernandez. He literally put the 'Smoke' in KC Smoke.
In a thrilling last 150m meters, Mike Hernandez mows down a slew of runners nearly claiming victory in Thursday night's unseeded 1500m. You've got to watch this race! Several times it looks like Mike is gonna get dropped yet he maintains contact as he unleashes a monstrous kick.
Check it out on the KC Smoke Youtube channel here: http://youtu.be/EF76qj3EaGk
Mike's time of 3:52.07 was a personal best and good for 2nd place overall.
Four other Smoke athletes also competed in the jam-packed 1500m (there were 71 runners total). Aaron Yoder won his heat with a crazy-strong kick of his own with a season's best of 3:58.07, good for 12th overall. In the same heat, Aaron was followed by Randy Wasinger (4:02.14 – 23rd) and Rikki Hacker (4:04.66 – 29th) both season's bests. Ron Kochanowicz (40) also managed a season's best, placing 58th at 4:17.27. It's great to see Rikki Hacker back in the saddle.
Aaron, Randy and Rikki's race can be seen here: http://youtu.be/R67J1ka56hI
Aaron Davidson opened up his outdoor season with a strong showing in the 5000m. Aaron managed a 15:13.87, good for 13th overall out of 31.
Flotrack was at the KU Relays. Click here to see Flotrack's coverage of Aaron's race and click here for Ron's race.
Garmin HALF and FULL Marathon in the LAND OF OZ
The Smoke Masters team is on a roll… Kevin Miller followed up Keith Long's Missouri M50 state half marathon record from last week with a state record of his own on Saturday. Kevin shattered the Kansas M50 state half marathon record by over 3 minutes and won the Garmin Half Marathon with a time of 1:12:30. Somebody needs to wake Kevin up and remind him he's 50 years old and that Carter boycotted the 1980 Olympics! WOW! The previous M50 record of 1:15:50 was set in 2006 by Pete Orban of Claremore, OK.
In the full Marathon, Kory Cool placed 2nd with a time of 2:49:45. Congrats Kory!
Complete results can be found here.
Kansas Half Marathon
The 2nd leg of the Heartland 39.3 Series was held at the Kansas Half Marathon on Sunday.
Rikki Hacker who competed in the KU Relays on Thursday night, made his way back to Lawrence for this event on Sunday, grabbing 2nd place overall with a time of 1:15:13.
David Franz earned 6th place with a time of 1:17:20, followed closely by Ken Moran (42) in 1:17:50. Ken's effort was good enough for 7th overall and first master.
Click here for complete results.