Weru, Cieslewicz win XTERRA Santa Cruz 20km Trail Run

Kenyan-native and Oakland, California resident John Weru, 31, and Salt Lake City, Utah runner Rachel Cieslewicz ran away from the field to win the XTERRA Santa Cruz 20km Trail Run at Wilder Ranch State Park in Santa Cruz, California this morning.

Weru, the reigning and three-time winner of the Lake Tahoe Marathon (who has also won the San Francisco marathon), set the pace early alongside US Mountain Running Team leader Richard Bolt from Portland, OR before pulling away with a blazing fast 5:38 per mile pace. His winning time of 1:09:52 was more than three minutes faster than Bolt, the runner-up in 1:13:05.

"This was a beautiful course, very fast and scenic all along the ocean," said Weru, who plans on giving three-time XTERRA Trail Run National Champion Max King some competition at this year's national title race in Ogden, Utah on Sept. 25.

In the women's race Ceislewicz continues to impress on the XTERRA Trail Running circuit - both with her weekly "Tips from the trail" column and on courses all over the west coast (she won the XTERRA Lake Las Vegas 21km race last month).

Her winning time of 1:22:19 was good for 5th overall, and more than seven minutes faster than runner-up Molly Fuller from San Francisco.
"I love the atmosphere and all the different challenges that XTERRA throws at you," said Cieslewicz.  "No two courses are ever the same, and this was actually the perfect course for me today. I've been struggling with some injuries and would've suffered had there been a ton of up-and-down, but the route was pretty flat and fast and just gorgeous running all along the bluffs like that."

More than 125 runners from 10 states took part in the inaugural XTERRA Santa Cruz trail running events on a cool, overcast morning on the Pacific Coast.  Jason Reed and Nora Naylor won the 10km race in 41:12 and 45:30, respectively.  In the 5km race Gabe Bodner and Neal Rosenblum finished together in 22:35 but Bodner was credited with the victory.  Zoe Garner-Glowski from the United Kingdom won the women's 5km race in 26:18.

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