Friday, November 23, 2001
Newcomer wins women's race
Krieger surprises Tranter
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
First, Jill Tranter thought she had the Thanksgiving Day Race won. Then she thought she had been cheated. Finally, she decided she just had been beaten.
Kathrine Krieger clearly finished just ahead of Tranter. But Tranter was unaware that another female was even close to her. Because of confusion over the course — about 25 runners took a wrong turn, adding about a half-mile to their run — Tranter thought Krieger may have accidently taken a shortcut.
“I never saw her until the very end,” Tranter said. “I don't know what happened.”
It turns out the course error didn't affect the women's finish. Tranter, who had won the previous two Thanksgiving Day Races, simply was unaware that Krieger was close. When Krieger passed her, Tranter was caught off guard and didn't respond.
“It's my fault,” Tranter said.
It's not surprising that Tranter didn't know Krieger was going to be a challenger. This was Krieger's first Thanksgiving Day Race — and her first time in Cincinnati.
Krieger lives in San Francisco. She came to Cincinnati to visit the family of her boyfriend, Daniel Shore.
She didn't expect to win.
“This is the biggest race I've ever been in,” she said. “I'm training for my first marathon, so I wasn't expecting to run very fast today. I had steak and wine for dinner last night.”
She was aware that Tranter was ahead of her.
“I started out at a 5:50 pace,” she said. “I kept that up the whole way. I was planning on running 6:10. But I felt pretty good.”
She saw Tranter around the 4-mile mark and caught her just before the finish.
“I turned the corner and there was the finish,” Krieger said. “I had a kick today. I usually don't have a very good kick.”
Must have been the steak and wine. “Yeah, I might have that before my marathon,” Krieger said.
Full results are posted at www.thanksgivingdayrace.com/results.htm.
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