Familiar faces filled the winner’s circle at Saturday’s Semana Nautica 4th of July 15k as Curly Guillen and Annie O’Donnell won for the second consecutive year.
Guillen, who is in the middle of training for October’s Chicago Marathon and the U.S. Olympic Trials in February, lowered his time from last year to finish in 47 minutes and 50 seconds. Carlos Carballo came in second with a time of 48:33, followed by third-place finisher Ben Li at 51.19.
The distance was just a small piece of Guillen’s weekly preparation for running marathons. He’s currently covering 90 miles per week leading up to Chicago. His best finish at a major marathon was 18th overall earlier this year at the Los Angeles Marathon.
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“I’m deep in heavy training right now, 90 miles a week, so my legs are tired,” Guillen said.
It didn’t help that he was racing on four hours of sleep. Guillen is a popular DJ in Santa Barbara who worked until 2 a.m. the night before.
“It’s perfect training for the marathon because I have to learn how to push when I’m tired,” Guillen said.
Guillen, 33, led start to finish, consciously beginning fast to see if anyone in the field could hang. His first mile was 4 minutes and 55 seconds, a pace that evened out to 5:08 per mile by the end of the race.
O’Donnell is a former NCAA cross country runner from Davidson College. Like Guillen, she’s getting ready for a bigger race as she’s planning on doing her first triathlon in August.
“I enjoy running but I’m ready to try something new too,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell’s winning time was 58:29, good for 14th overall. The 29-year-old led the latter two-thirds of the course over Addi Zerrenner, 19, a Dos Pueblos graduate who runs cross country at Arizona, and who placed second in the women’s division in a time of 1:01.13.
“She and I went back and forth a little bit. She’s certainly a strong runner but at some point I was able to get ahead. There were of course guys in front of me and I just tried to pick off one or two here or there,” O’Donnell said.
This year’s race was the 61st 4th of July 15k in Santa Barbara. It’s the oldest running race on the Central Coast. In 2015 the event added a 4k distance for children and beginners.
