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 yr 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 working 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 in addition simply one thing totally different,” Hunter informed Race Outcomes Weekly in a phone interview from Boulder on Tuesday.  “Final yr that occurred to be a monitor 10-Okay.  I’d by no means performed one; I’d centered on the 1500 most of my profession.  I used to be identical to, that is going to be laborious, difficult, nevertheless it’s one thing new.  I believe it’s actually essential for us athletes to only keep impressed by our working.”

Hunter will face an additional problem in Sunday’s race.  He’s nonetheless recovering from the ten,000m private finest he ran at The Ten in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., final Saturday night time the place he completed eleventh (fourth American) in 27:24.49.  Coached by his mom, Joan, the 2021 USATF 5-Okay highway working 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-Okay was the precedence, so I may run the 10-Okay and nonetheless race Cherry Blossom.  I believe the 10-mile will probably be a good way for me.”  He added: “I actually needed to hit the 10-Okay laborious, then race the Cherry Blossom and see what I can do.  It’s a bit of 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 workforce.  That’s been significantly useful for his build-up for these two longer races.

“I practice rather a lot 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 centered his profession totally on center distance working.  He beat Alan Webb’s nationwide highschool indoor mile file in 2016, working 3:58.25 (his first sub-four mile) then ran 3:57.81 later that season.  He finally lowered his mile time to three:54.80 in 2022, and final yr ran a handy guide a rough 3:33.78 for 1500m.

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

“I simply must 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 an amazing monitor season.”  He added: “I can actually be strong in something I put my thoughts to.”

Hunter’s 2024 monitor season was brief, however impactful.  After making USA Olympic Workforce Trials qualifying marks for each 5000m and 10,000m, Hunter determined to focus all of his power on working the ten,000m.  He noticed a gap for one workforce 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 believe I can present up on the Olympic Trials and have my perfect race of the yr be on the Olympic Trials,” Hunter recalled considering a yr in the past.  “Whereas underneath stress, I believe plenty of the opposite guys will probably be cooked, they’ll be drained, I believe they’ll be training-through.  I believe I can run very well, and my Mother developed a program for me that may 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 finest race of the yr on the Olympic Trials when it mattered essentially the most.”

Hunter has been a professional for nearly a decade, and his latest 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 sphere of play and off.  He has stunned himself, he stated.

“I did plenty of issues in my working profession I by no means thought I might do,” stated Hunter.  “I began a workforce, I made a shoe with an organization, I bought thousands and thousands of {dollars} of substances.  These are issues –they’re not working objectives– however they’re issues I’m very pleased with that I completed in my profession.  So, I believe that my path is my path, and my journey just isn’t 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 generally known as the “Runner’s Ceremony of Spring.”

“It’s a race that I’ve all the time needed to do,” stated Hunter.  “Considered one of my first recollections of working, really, was my Dad took some Reston Street Runners to the Cherry Blossom after I was a bit of child and I received to look at.  I grew up exterior of Northern Virginia, so D.C. may be very near house for me.  All of my in-laws will get to look at me run.  A few of my associates from highschool will get to return out and see me run.”  He added: “I’m excited to type of return house.  I’m really spending a while with my household afterwards, a few of my associates, and we’ll have fun 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 girls’s race at 7:18 a.m., adopted by the elite males and lots more and plenty at 7:30 (final yr’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 Working Group (PRRO) Circuit.  The twenty eighth PRRO Championship will probably be held on the Utica Boilermaker 15-Okay on Sunday, July 13, in Utica, N.Y.

ENDS

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