Most Viewed Stories
10K rookie Trujillo nabs top spot in Sailin' Shoes run
Immediate success and competitive running don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, but for 20-year-old Emilio Trujillo, that was precisely what happened at Saturday’s Sailin’ Shoes 10-kilometer race.
Trujillo -- a Colorado Springs native who will race for Colorado-Colorado Springs this season after spending two years at Kansas – had never competed in a 10K race, specializing in 5K and shorter distances. But in preparation for the NCAA regional races he will participate in when he suits up for the Mountain Lions, the Sierra High School grad thought it was crucial to expand his running repertoire.
“We stuck with the 5K guys, and I’ve been thinking for the past two weeks in my long runs, visualizing myself winning the race,” Trujillo said. “And then when the race came, I felt good and decided to take control of it.”
Crossing the Tejon Street finish line with a 1-minute, 45-second lead over second-place finisher Brian Dumm, Trujillo admitted he was surprised to grab the Sailin’ Shoes crown in his first competitive run at this distance.
In the concurrent 5K race, Greg Reindl – a 27-year-old who resides in Denver -- found a late surge that allowed him to snatch the lead from his Boulder Running Co. teammate Adam Rich, who finished 9 seconds behind him. With a noticeable but not debilitating wind blowing against runners during the first stretch of the race, Reindl managed a 5:01 per mile clip.
“I was sitting in second for about two miles, and then once we got to the top of the hill the last time, I passed the guy in first and just opened it up down the hill,” Reindl said. “So it was nice to be with the wind heading to the finish.”
The first 5K female racer to step over the finish line at the 34th annual run was 24-year-old Christie Foster, with a time slightly north of 18 minutes. In the 6.2-mile 10K competition, Brianne Pierson beat out her nearest competitor by just over 30 seconds.
Dumm, the second-fastest 10K runner, was not especially pleased with his 5:35 per mile pace. A 2005 graduate of the Air Force Academy who prefers much longer distances, Saturday morning’s race marked the start of the “summer training cycle” for Dumm.
The 29-year-old is preparing for September’s Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and used the downtown Colorado Springs race to start tuning up for the fall.
“I did (Sailin’ Shoes) last year for the first time,” he said. “I live just a few blocks from here, it’s a beautiful way to get out and into the community.”
