Ugandan Patrick Cheptoek won the 2015 Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon’s half marathon on Sunday morning in Knoxville, a city in the U.S state of Tennessee beating several runners to the top prize.
Cheptoek reached the tape after 1 hour, 10 minutes and 45 seconds ahead of second placed Gavin Coombs of Raleigh, North Carolina who posted 1 hour, 12 minutes and 22 seconds. Alan Horton of Knoxville followed in 1:12:28 before J Penny of Johnson City (1:12:30).
Cheptoek, 28, a native of Uganda, had his winning push in the last two miles after maintaining pace with the leading pack until he eventually broke away to remain solo for the last miles of the race.
“I was running with a pack of guys for the first six miles,” he told knoxnews.com. “After six miles, we were in a pack of two for up to 11 miles, and then I started to get out by myself after 11 miles.”
Despite the course being a challenging one, Cheptoek went on to reveal to how he likes winning the competition. “It’s a very challenging course and I like to run it to begin my season,” he said. “It’s kind of a startup for the season, and it’s very challenging, and I just love it, and I love winning this.”
Patrick Cheptoek traveled from Bowling Green, Kentucky only to win his third consecutive half marathon in Knoxville. He is in graduate school at Western Kentucky University, where he is a former runner.
Courtesy of kawowo.com