Bostonian Mark Gomes won the 6th annual Tropical 5K January 30 in Miami Beach in the weekend's warm-up to the ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon®
The 39-year-old Gomes, who clocked in at 16:51, separated himself from a trio down the stretch that that included local high schooler David Ramirez and Atlanta resident Jeff Zickus. Ramirez,17, ran 17:04 in posting his best road race finish with Zickus, 36, crossing in third place at 17:18.
The early morning race posed windy conditions for the 2,033 runners who took off from Watson Island and ran east on the McArthur Causeway past the Port of Miami 's gleaming cruise ships. The runners then wound through Miami Beach to the finish line at South Pointe Park in front of Miami institution Joe's Stone Crab.
"The wind was brutal the whole time," said Gomes, a stock analyst who is wintering in Miami while training for the 2011 Master's Track & Field Nationals. "It was that way even going up on the bridge. "
Gomes made his move at the base of the bridge, separating from the pack along with Ramirez and Zickus. "They were right with me until the 3-mile mark," said Gomes. "I didn't know what these guys had. You never know. I was actually worried I went too soon. These young guys have those sprinting legs. I didn't know what they had left."
"I made a mistake in the beginning," said Ramirez, a senior at Coral Reef High School in Miami . "I hit the mile at 5:05 and it was too fast. I didn't have enough energy at the end."
Two-time Olympian Elva Dryer, the first woman to finish and the sixth finisher overall, used the race as a start to her 2010 season. The 38- year old from Gunnison , Colorado was in town with Team Strands for the ING Miami Marathon Sunday, but chose to run the shorter distance.
Dryer's plans to go out conservatively and gain on the men over the course of the race did not materialize as her 18:09 time fell well short of her 15:27 personal best.
"The first half mile went pretty, smooth," she said. "I had four or five men in front of me. I thought I could gain on them, but with the headwind, it wasn't happening. I think I just kind of maintained and went the distance."
The top American finisher in the 5,000 meters in Sydney (2000) and a 10,000 meter runner in Athens (2004), Dryer now works fulltime and hopes to get back into competitive shape. "I took a break and am getting back into it," she said. "I expected to run faster and was hoping for better."
In the end, it was the 71-degree race temperature that will stick most with Dryer. "I got to experience the Miami lifestyle since I've been here," she said. "I see why people come here and live here."
The Tropical 5K race was the fifth in the nine-race Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Running Series, which also includes tomorrow's ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon
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