Rodes City Run draws a crowd

Although it was chilly in downtown Louisville this morning, the Rodes City Run was spared from the rain that drenched the Anthem 5K Fitness Classic two weeks ago. And there was no lightning.

So, with its standing as the oldest race in the Louisville Triple Crown of Running, the City Run was in a position to lure a lot of latecomers. It actually set a record with 5,819 entries, and nearly 5,100 participants finished the 10-kilometer race established in 1981.

All of those people didn’t make the second leg of the Triple Crown any more competitive at the front, however. Defending men’s winner James Mutuse and 2004 women’s winner Susie Bush, both former Triple Crown champions, each finished nearly a minute ahead of their pursuers.

Mutuse, a Richmond, Ky., resident who won the Triple Crown in 2002, claimed the City Run title for the fourth time. He broke from the lead pack less than a mile from the start line at Fourth and Broadway and continued to separate from that group, which included Louisville residents Justin Banks, Andrew Danner, and Mike Horan; Miles Krieger of Greenville, Ind.; and Cory Scheadler of Sardinia, Ohio.

Mutuse reached the finish line outside Waterfront Park Place on Witherspoon in 31:10 - 51 seconds ahead of Danner, the Polar Bear Grand Prix men’s champion, who sprinted past Banks for second place. Scheadler and Krieger were fourth and fifth, respectively.

“I wanted this one so bad,” said Mutuse, who had finished second in the Anthem 5K, the first leg in the series. “I wanted the Triple Crown. When I missed it, I said no one would take it.”

But it was known that there would be no male Triple Crown champion this year before Mutuse even arrived at the race today. Anthem 5K winner Westley Alkin, a University of Louisville graduate student and volunteer assistant coach, already had decided not to run in either the City Run or the third leg, the Papa John’s 10 Miler, on April 15.

There also will not be a female Triple Crown champion. Bush, a Lexington, Ky., resident who won the series title in 2004, has won the first two races this year but will not run in the Papa John’s 10 Miler. She plans to run in a track competition in California instead.

Bush finished the City Run in 34:54 - well ahead of Columbus, Ohio, sisters Tara and Kara Storage, who were timed in 35:36 and 35:53, respectively. Bowling Green, Ky., resident Bonita Paul, who won the race in Bush’s absence last year, was fourth. Louisville’s Jen Alessandro, the Polar Bear Grand Prix women’s champion, was fifth.

Bush, a former Morehead State University standout, bettered her time from two years ago by 1:23.

“I’m fitter than I was then,” she said. “I didn’t run particularly fast, but it’s still early in the year. I felt good out there."

Full results can be found here.