By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
NEW YORK (01-Nov) — Annie Rodenfels, a national-class steeplechaser with exceptional road racing chops, prevailed for the third consecutive time at this morning’s Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5-K, the 10,000-runner warm-up race for tomorrow’s TCS New York City Marathon. Rodenfels, 29, used her knowledge of the course to great advantage today, not wasting any energy and saving her best running for the final 400 meters where she powered past three rivals to get the win in 15:33, the slowest of her three winning times here. She pocketed $6000 in prize money, half the amount she earned for her two previous wins when the race was a USATF national championship.
“I just felt like knowing the course was so helpful,” Rodenfels told Race Results Weekly. She added: “I just kind of had to play my cards just right.”
Rodenfels, who is sponsored by Salomon, went to the front early just after the race began adjacent to the United Nations on First Avenue. Making the right-hand turn on to East 42nd Street in the first kilometer, Rodenfels was joined by key rivals Weini Kelati, Elle St. Pierre, and Parker Valby. That stretch of 42nd Street is downhill, and Rodenfels wasn’t pushing the pace.
“I didn’t want to be the person who led the whole race and just got out-kicked at the end, to be honest,” Rodenfels said.
Making the right-hand turn to head north on Avenue of the Americas in the second kilometer, Rodenfels was still leading with Kelati just behind her. The two appeared to be opening a gap on the field, but by the 3-K point St.Pierre and Valby had caught up, and the pack of four entered the Central Park service road at West 59th Street together. That’s where the athletes face the race’s toughest hill. Kelati, the 2024 national cross country champion, led the field up the hill, and nobody was dropped.
“I knew it was a big hill,” Rodenfels explained. “I knew in the past that sometimes I slowed down a little bit on the hill, and I was anticipating it being a little rough. But was focused on staying connected, and when I got to the top of the hill and I was like, that wasn’t that bad.”
The four leaders made the sharp left turn onto the Park’s loop road, and as they passed the famous carousel on their right Rodenfels started to drift back. Kelati and St. Pierre were leading with Valby just a step behind running between them. Rodenfels was looking down and was several steps behind. It seemed that she was settling into fourth place.
“It was just close enough that I was like, you know, I’ve got to take my shot,” Rodenfels recalled. “I can’t just settle here for fourth. I feel like I have a pretty big kick left.”
The race shares the same finish straight as Sunday’s marathon, and it is notoriously uphill. Rodenfels was still a few strides back, but put in a surge in the final 400 meters that none of her rivals could match. Kelati, St. Pierre and Valby were already at their aerobic limits, but Rodenfels had something left.
“I was playing it intuitively and went for it,” said Rodenfels, who only had one second on Kelati at the finish. St. Pierre, in her first race back from maternity leave, took third in 15:35, and Valby, who spent nearly all of 2025 trying to come back from a broken navicular bone in her left foot, got fourth in 15:37.
Rodenfels, who like national 1500m champion Nikki Hiltz is coached by Juli Benson, said that she was uncertain of her fitness coming into today’s race.
“Honestly, I felt like I’m less sharp than normal,” she admitted. “I feel like I usually come here and I’m raring to go, ready in shape. I took my break (after the track season) longer. We’ve been trying to slow it down, so I can be in shape more at the right time. So, I was very surprised winning this.
For Valby, finishing today’s race marked an important step in her comeback. Her last race was an indoor 3000m on February 2, and she revealed that she had only been running for about two months. She has been training in Gainesville, Fla., under her college coach, Will Palmer.
“Excited to be back out there and grateful to be healthy,” she said after being asked to evaluate her race. She continued: “I hurt my foot in February and it took a little while to figure out what it was. It was a pretty bad break. I had to take a lot of time off to get healthy again.”
The men’s race also came down to the final sprint. Kenya’s Amon Kemboi, who trains with the Puma Elite Running group in North Carolina, used his unique mix of strength and speed to prevail today. He put in the first big surge of the race on East 42nd Street, then surged again on the uphill into Central Park where he was followed by Americans Cole Sprout (in his professional road racing debut), Anthony Rotich, and Drew Bosley, and Britain’s Adam Fogg. Another Kenyan, Patrick Kiprop, had been dropped on the hill.
“The main thing was staying comfortable for the first two miles,” Kemboi told reporters. “I was ready for quick, or tactical race. It was kind of tactical; that was good.”
Running downhill past the Carousel on the park’s loop road, Kemboi decided to wait to strike. Like Rodenfels, he thought the last 400 meters would be the best place to make his move. He waited for the final uphill to the finish line, then surged a final time. He clocked 13:50, beating Sprout by one second. Rotich was third in 13:52, and Fogg got fourth in 13:53. Bosley, who was with the leaders the entire race, finished fifth in 13:58.
“The main thing was, I know I had the kick to get to the finish,” said Kemboi who finished third in the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile here in 2024 (sixth this year). “That was the main thing. Getting to the last 800 and seeing how the body feels, then execute the last 400.”
American Abdi Nur, the defending champion, ran near the front of the race early, but fell back mid-race and finished seventh in 14:14. He explained that he did not feel well this morning, and that he was also in the early stages of his training for 2026.
“This morning I didn’t feel the best waking up,” he told Race Results Weekly. “I don’t know if it was something I ate yesterday, but it was hard to get food down this morning. At two miles… I felt so weak. Right now I’m building mileage, I’m building fitness and getting back to regular volume. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m getting close. I’m really proud of myself for finishing.”
PHOTO: Annie Rodenfels winning the 2025 Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5-K in New York (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
PHOTO: Amon Kemboi winning the 2025 Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5-K in New York (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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