News

Dec. 9, 2006 - Sion, Switzerland

Good end to fall season in Sion

Yet again, the Swiss do not disappoint when it comes to putting on great road races. The Course de Noel was the last for most people running the series of road races in Switzerland and Sion continued the trend by hosting a vibrant and exciting event.

Like many, this was Hilary's last race for the fall and she was eager to use the momentum gained from previous ones to make it a good race. The course featured five loops adding up to 5300m and each loop included a challenging uphill of about 400m.

Although it was a cool, rainy night, it didn't stop Kenya's Caroline Chepkwony and Ethiopia's Aster Bacha from setting a fast early pace. But, Hilary followed close behind in a group with two others who would battle for the next spots the whole race.

In the end, it was Chepkwony who took the win in 17:06. Hilary was a close 4th by only four seconds to the bronze in 17:35.

"I was in the hunt for third place, but she got away from me in the 3rd lap and I was never able to close that 4-5 second gap. I definitely worked hard for it though so I can't complain," said Hilary. "Overall, I was very pleased with this final race because it was probably my fastest one so far -- maybe eqivilant to 16:30 for 5km on this hilly course. That shows my strenght is good and I'm looking forward to using that in the upcoming track season."

Hilary will take a bit of down time and then start training for the indoor track season. Her first race will be a mile at the New Balance Games in New York City on January 20th.

See full results of Sion here>>

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