This past weekend Maggie Walker's Esther Erb, a former Green Dragon and athlete at Case Western Reserve University claimed the first ever United States Marathon national championship. She adds this to her NCAA 10,000m championship from back in 2008.
Photo: USATF
INDIANAPOLIS, In.- While a large men’s pack ran together much of Sunday’s race, the women’s race was significantly different. In the very early miles, Brianne Nelson (Golden, Colorado)
and surprise frontrunner Heather Lieberg (Helena, Montana) grabbed the lead, extending their gap by more than 40 seconds at one point.
Little movement took place behind Nelson and Lieberg, until Esther Erb (Lambertville, N.J.) andAriana Hilborn (Tempe, Arizona) started to pick up the pace. At mile 19, it seemed as though Erb and Hilborn might start to make up ground on the leaders, until Erb hit a small rough patch and the lead Nelson and Lieberg owned continued to maintain.
Everything changed heading into mile 21, when Erb found a second wind and started to really close the gap on Nelson and Lieberg. As the two front-runners focused on their own dual, Erb broke from Hilborn and started to close the gab. With less than 5 km to go, Erb caught and quickly passed Nelson and Lieberg. Nelson rapidly fell off pace, while Lieberg tried to latch on, but Erb’s quick pass couldn’t be matched.
With Erb striding into the final stretch, she crossed the finish in 2:34:00 with arms raised and a big smile on her face, as she took home her first national title. Lieberg, who ran the breakthrough race of the day, finished second in 2:34:08, while Nelson maintained pack to place third in 2:34:22.
Check out the full story from the USATF here!
Ester Erb is currently residing in New Jersey where she works as an assistant coach for Rider University.
This story and picture are taken from the USATF News section and Christa Mann.