BCHS Note: Andrea (Kremer) Pomaranski is a BCHS graduate, Class of 2000
Andrea Pomaranski is an inspiration to brides everywhere.
She wanted to lose weight before her wedding, trained for a marathon . . . and, well, has again become the national-class runner she once was.
The 27-year-old Indianapolis native finished third in a fast and deep women's field Saturday at the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.
Winds gusted up to 30 mph. Overnight, the steel-supported finish structure crashed to the ground.
But the unseasonably cold temperatures stayed in the 40s. Most runners in the nation's largest half-marathon -- 35,000 registrants -- benefited from such favorable running conditions.
Festus Langat extended the streak of Kenyan champions to 15, gathering himself for a closing kick. He scored a repeat victory in 1 hour, 2 minutes, 51 seconds over the 13.1-mile course.
He said he was "using my tactics" to beat countryman Ondara MacDonald by three seconds. Strategy also mattered to women's champion Janet Cherobon.
"I ran behind some guys, and I just ran with them the whole way," she said. "So that really helped."
The women's race evolved into a Kenya/Ethiopia duel usually found in international track and cross country. This east African running rivalry was transported to Indianapolis streets.
Cherobon, a 31-year-old Kenyan, won her fourth straight Mini by edging Ethiopia's Belainesh Zemedkun. Cherobon's time was international class: 1:10:59, or 65th in the world this year. Zemedkun, 22, was two seconds behind.
Both runners were under the course record of 1:11:24 set in 2003 by Albina Ivanova, a Russian Olympian. Pomaranski's time was 1:14.26, the 16th-b est by an American this year.
Pomaranski, 27, the former Andrea Kremer, had anything but the Olympics in mind when she resumed running after a break of a few years. She was "grossly out of shape," she said. She ran the New York Marathon in 2008, and hasn't slowed since.
Her husband, Joe, a former minor league hockey player, is "really supportive," she said. They reside in Farmington Hills, Mich.
Pomaranski was sixth, behind five Africans, in a January marathon at Tempe, Ariz., in 2:37:44 -- seventh-best by an American this year. She has qualified for the 2012 Olympic marathon trials. After that, she wants to start a family.
"I have no plans, really, to go a whole lot further than I am," she said.
The Bishop Chatard graduate was a two- time All-American at Miami of Ohio. In 2001, she set what was then an American junior (under-20) record of 10:12.86 in the steeplechase. If that created expectations, those are no longer there.
"And that's the way I like it," Pomaranski said. "I'll try my best. Whatever happens, happens.
"I'm going to do it as long as I'm having fun with it. Because that's what it's supposed to be. It's a hobby. An intense hobby."
Also under 1:15 was fourth-place Dorota Gruca, 39, a Polish marathoner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Depth of quality was supplied by Hoosiers: Nicole Fisher, Beech Grove, sixth; Dani Prince, Bloomington, seventh; L aura Farley, Indianapolis, ninth; Camille Herron, West Lafayette, 10th.
"This year the Mini is unbelievable," said Farley, a 26-year-old nurse and former r unner for Purdue and Cathedral High School.
Her time, 1:17:45, would have placed sixth in 2009. There were 14 women under 1:20, compared with eight a year ago.
Lucie Mays-Sulewski, 39, a Westfield mother of two, was 13th in 1:19:55, just 44 seconds off her winning time from 2006. She was four minutes faster than a year ago, and she also is aiming at the 2012 marathon trials.
"You always hold onto your dreams for as long as you can," she said.
The top American men's finisher, Stephen Haas, qualified for the Olympic marathon trials by clocking 2:18:45 at Las Vegas on Dec. 9. Haas, 27, a former Indiana University track star, was fifth in the Mini in 1:04:19.
"I'd really like to contend for a win here sometime," he said.
Also in Haas' Bloomington training group are Mark Fruin, ninth, 1:06:58, and Franklin native Jeff Powers, 11th, 1:07:43.