CAPITOLA >> Long legs have their advantages. During Sunday’s 45th annual Wharf to Wharf Race, it equaled about a second.
Teshome Mekonen of Ethiopia stretched his lean limbs out as he sprinted down the final, steep hill into Capitola. His extra length gave him just enough of a gap on Kenya’s Simion Chirchir to allow him to cross the finish line first, securing the title of the annual six-mile road race between Santa Cruz and Capitola.
Mekonen finished in 27 minutes, 33 seconds, while Chirchir trailed by a second. Kenyans Silas Kipruto (27:41) and Isaac Mukundi (27:44) placed third and fourth to round out the four cash-winning positions. Mekonen will earn $4,000 for his victory, followed by $3,000 for Chirchir, $2,000 for Kipruto and $1,000 for Mukundi.
“Big and strong runners. A lot of competition,” the soft-spoken Mekonen said post-victory.
Diego Estrada of Salinas was the top American, finishing sixth in 27:48. Scotts Valley High alum Nick Heath corralled the Top Local title that had narrowly eluded him in 2016. A year after believing he had finished as the top local, only to find the runner in front of him was from Watsonville, he nabbed the title with a 13th-place finish in 30:10.
“It’s quite an honor,” said Heath, who now runs for Pepperdine University. “I’ve been putting a lot of work in over the years, so this is really special to me.”
In addition to length — Chirchir came up to his chin — Mekonen possessed a few other advantages over the rest of the field. He had raced most of them multiple times and recently beat several of them when he won the Crazy 8s 8-kilometer race in Tennessee last weekend. He also is familiar with the course, having placed third last year behind winner Mukundi and runner-up Kipruto. This marked Chirchir’s inaugural Wharf to Wharf race, which was run under overcast skies and temperatures in the high 50s.
The four top finishers spent most of the race running in a pack of nine — a much thicker group than is typical for the race. They stuck together from the start through Mile 5 along Pleasure Point. Shortly after the mile marker, near 36th Avenue, the pack started to fragment, with Mekonen, Chirchir and Kipruto surging to the front.
“It’s the climax of the route,” Chirchir said of Mile 5. “If you are still strong, you can go fast from there. You have to change your pace a little bit.”
Estrada had one of the best views of the fracture. Running within the main pack, he actually led the race when he surged to the front during the downhill near Twin Lakes beach.
“I pushed a little bit, but they reacted,” he said. “Sometimes if they don’t know you, they won’t react.”
But even if the other racers didn’t know him, the crowd did. Estrada said he kept hearing his name on the course, which made him feel like a hometown racer, even if it also gave away his cover. So, he readily tucked into the pack, surging on the uphill and slowing on the downhill, as seemed to be the wont of the leaders. Until they approached the final, long downhill, when they found their next gear.
“They put on a really good move around Mile 5,” Estrada said, “and they didn’t slow down.”
Estrada, 27, didn’t leave disappointed, though he is tired of finishing sixth after taking that same position in the men’s 10k at the USA Track and Field Championships in Oregon late last month. He also was a bit perturbed that what he called “a slow start” for the elite pack led to his inability to break 27 minutes — something that hasn’t been achieved since he was taking classes at Alisal High in the late 2000s. He’d like a chance to stretch his legs a little more.
So, even though this was his first Wharf to Wharf, he doesn’t expect it to be his last.
“Next year, I’m going to have a different routine. I may not do trials next season and I may do more road races,” he said. “I’m going to pencil this one in.
“It would be nice to come back and get that win.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
