STEPPING UP IN DISTANCE, HUNTER TO RACE CHERRY BLOSSOM 10-MILE ON SUNDAY

STEPPING UP IN DISTANCE, HUNTER TO RACE CHERRY BLOSSOM 10-MILE ON SUNDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti.bsky.social
(c) 2025 Race Outcomes Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. 

(03-Apr) — Coming off of a 12 months the place he set private bests from 1500m to 10,000m, two-time USATF nationwide champion Drew Hunter will run the longest race of his profession on Sunday, the 52nd version of the Credit score Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile in Washington, D.C.  Hunter, 27, who lives in Boulder, Colo., however grew up in close by Virginia, can even be competing within the USATF 10-Mile Championships, the race-within-the-race on the Cherry Blossom, the place he hopes to beat nationwide highway operating champions like Hillary Bor, Biya Simbassa, Leonard Korir, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Alex Maier.

“I really feel like yearly I put a race on the calendar that’s a problem for me, but additionally simply one thing totally different,” Hunter instructed Race Outcomes Weekly in a phone interview from Boulder on Tuesday.  “Final 12 months that occurred to be a observe 10-Ok.  I’d by no means performed one; I’d targeted on the 1500 most of my profession.  I used to be identical to, that is going to be arduous, difficult, but it surely’s one thing new.  I feel it’s actually vital for us athletes to simply keep impressed by our operating.”

Hunter will face an additional problem in Sunday’s race.  He’s nonetheless recovering from the ten,000m private greatest he ran at The Ten in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., final Saturday evening the place he completed eleventh (fourth American) in 27:24.49.  Coached by his mom, Joan, the 2021 USATF 5-Ok highway operating champion has been preparing for this two-race peak since he began his winter coaching.

“Cherry Blossom slot in very well with my schedule,” Hunter continued.  “The ten-Ok was the precedence, so I might run the 10-Ok and nonetheless race Cherry Blossom.  I feel the 10-mile can be a long way for me.”  He added: “I actually wished to hit the 10-Ok arduous, then race the Cherry Blossom and see what I can do.  It’s slightly liberating, not doing a 10-miler earlier than.  It’s my longest race, ever.  Expectations are low, and that’s type of enjoyable for me.”

Though Hunter based the adidas-backed Tinman Elite program in Boulder, he’s now not an official member of that group since his eight-year sponsorship with adidas lapsed on the finish of 2024 and he signed a brand new four-year contract with Asics.  Nonetheless, Hunter does a few of his coaching with the Tinman group which is evolving right into a marathon-focused staff.  That’s been significantly useful for his build-up for these two longer races.

“I practice quite a bit with (Tinman’s) Reed Fischer and he’s run very well over that distance,” Hunter defined.  “So, I’m very, type of like, intrigued to see what I can really do.”

Hunter –who turned professional proper out of highschool in 2016 after initially deciding he was going to enter the NCAA system on the College of Oregon– has targeted his profession totally on center distance operating.  He beat Alan Webb’s nationwide highschool indoor mile file in 2016, operating 3:58.25 (his first sub-four mile) then ran 3:57.81 later that season.  He ultimately lowered his mile time to three:54.80 in 2022, and final 12 months ran a quick 3:33.78 for 1500m.

Hunter harassed that operating two long-distance races two weekends in a row doesn’t sign a transfer away from the observe or the mile.  As a substitute, he stated, he hopes that this section of his coaching, which included an 18-mile future, will make him a greater all-around runner.

“I simply should get sturdy,” Hunter admitted.  “Racing an over-distance race is admittedly good for me to do.  Simply in coaching, only for the preparation I’ve performed for it, will set me up for a terrific observe season.”  He added: “I can actually be strong in something I put my thoughts to.”

Hunter’s 2024 observe season was brief, however impactful.  After making USA Olympic Group Trials qualifying marks for each 5000m and 10,000m, Hunter determined to focus all of his power on operating the ten,000m.  He noticed a gap for one staff spot assuming that Grant Fisher and Woody Kincaid would take the top-two spots (they did).  Close to the tip of the race, Hunter got here near beating former Northern Arizona star Nico Younger; Younger solely beat Hunter by .95 seconds.

Hunter recounted how his mom helped put together him for one mighty peak on the Trials.

“I feel I can present up on the Olympic Trials and have my easiest race of the 12 months be on the Olympic Trials,” Hunter recalled considering a 12 months in the past.  “Whereas below strain, I feel plenty of the opposite guys can be cooked, they’ll be drained, I feel they’ll be training-through.  I feel I can run very well, and my Mother developed a program for me that might have me prepared then.  It took a leap of religion –like I didn’t run amazingly in a few of my earlier races, like U.S. cross nation (he completed ninth), and another issues– however I ran my greatest race of the 12 months on the Olympic Trials when it mattered essentially the most.”

Hunter has been a professional for nearly a decade, and his current change of sponsors –and having a second daughter together with his spouse Sandy final September– gave him an opportunity to mirror on his profession, each on the sector of play and off.  He has stunned himself, he stated.

“I did plenty of issues in my operating profession I by no means thought I might do,” stated Hunter.  “I began a staff, I made a shoe with an organization, I bought tens of millions of {dollars} of drugs.  These are issues –they’re not operating objectives– however they’re issues I’m very happy with that I achieved in my profession.  So, I feel that my path is my path, and my journey is just not over with but.  This new contract with Asics, the thrill about future races, I actually really feel like I’ve much more to offer.”

On Sunday in Washington, the place Hunter stated he’ll be racing within the Asics Metaspeed Edge, he’ll have plenty of assist all through the weekend.  Rising up in Loudoun County, only a one-hour drive northwest from central Washington, he plans to see family and friends alike.  He can even be becoming a member of a Hunter household custom of going to the Cherry Blossom, a race traditionally often called the “Runner’s Ceremony of Spring.”

“It’s a race that I’ve at all times wished to do,” stated Hunter.  “One among my first recollections of operating, really, was my Dad took some Reston Street Runners to the Cherry Blossom after I was slightly child and I acquired to observe.  I grew up exterior of Northern Virginia, so D.C. may be very near dwelling for me.  All of my in-laws will get to observe me run.  A few of my pals from highschool will get to come back out and see me run.”  He added: “I’m excited to type of return dwelling.  I’m really spending a while with my household afterwards, a few of my pals, and we’ll have a good time my sister’s birthday which is on the day of Cherry Blossom.”

 

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The 52nd Credit score Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile will begin close to the Washington Monument with the elite ladies’s race at 7:18 a.m., adopted by the elite males and much at 7:30 (final 12 months’s race had 17,856 finishers).  The race has an $80,600 prize cash purse ($48,600 for the nationwide championships), and can be a part of the celebrated 2024/2025 Skilled Street Operating Group (PRRO) Circuit.  The twenty eighth PRRO Championship can be held on the Utica Boilermaker 15-Ok on Sunday, July 13, in Utica, N.Y.

ENDS

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