Tesfaye Alemayehu defends Napa-to-Sonoma Half Marathon title
Napa, California – Tesfaye Sendeku Alemayehu of Ethiopia defended his Napa-to-Sonoma Half Marathon title here yesterday.
Alemayehu’s finishing time of 1:04.37 was well below the 1:03.58 course record he set here last year.
Christian Hesch of Hollywood (1:04.52), and former Napa-to-Sonoma half-marathon champion Sergio Reyes of Palmdale (1:04.53), came in second and third respectively.
Women’s Race
The top women’s finisher was Caroline Kirui, a 20-year-old runner from Kenya currently living in Auburn, California.
Kirui shattered the women’s course record by more than two minutes in a dazzling time of 1:15:45, with Julia Stamps Mallon being the second top woman finisher in 1:18:27. Mallon was a state-champion high school runner from Santa Rosa and an All-American at Stanford.
Organized by Destination Races of Sonoma, and part of the United States Half Marathon Race Series, the Wine Country Half Marathon course begins at Cuvaison  Carneros Estate winery in Napa, with the scenic 13.1-mile certified course winding its way into the Valley and ending in front of the Sonoma City Hall on the Plaza.
