Kate Landau sets new record in 10th Tacoma City Marathon

As the pair zipped along the Tacoma waterfront, one was in familiar territory. The other was not, but she was still surging toward a record.

Seattle’s Bill Condon and Tacoma’s Kate Landau spent much of the 10th Tacoma City Marathon running together. Condon was on his way to his third win in the event. Landau finished second overall, less than a minute behind Condon, and set a new women’s record for the race.

“Kate was breathing down my neck from mile 13 to the end of the race,” Condon said.

As they passed the half marathoners, runners were impressed by what they saw.

“They were just running and talking,” said Kevin Vilhauer of Puyallup, who finished third in the 40-44 age group. “They looked really strong.”

While it was Condon’s fourth Tacoma City Marathon, it was the first marathon ever for Landau.

As they talked their way through the second half of the race they shared stories of training, the course and strategy.

“She is awesome, she is fantastic,” Condon said.

Landau, 39, ran at Georgetown University and moved to Tacoma 2½ years ago. She ran the 5,000- and 10,000-meter distances in college and has done well in local half marathons. She chose Sunday’s race for her first marathon in honor of a friend.

Landau was one of many running in honor of Cale Tyler, a Tacoma runner who was struck and killed by a train in November. The half marathon finisher medals awarded Sunday had Tyler’s name inscribed on the back.

As Landau prepared for the race, she set a goal of breaking the record of 2 hours, 48 minutes, 4 seconds set by former University of Washington runner Allison Linnell in 2012. Landau’s time Sunday was 2:43:51, more than eight minutes ahead of the second-place male, Kevin Saur of Snohomish. She was nearly 28 minutes ahead of the second-place woman, Krista Davis of Gig Harbor. Davis’ time of 3:12:09 would have won by nearly 10 minutes last year.

“I went out a little too fast and I was dying toward the end,” Landau said. “But you get into a groove and it’s hard to slow yourself down.”

Condon’s winning time was 2:42:57. Only Tacoma’s Michael Lynes has won the race more times. Lynes won the first six Tacoma City Marathons.

Condon laughed when asked if he’d try to top Lynes’ record. “I don’t know,” he said. “As long as I can keep doing it, I’ll keep running.

Recent University of Puget Sound graduate Justin Higa, 23, won the half marthon in 1:17:34, while Tacoma’s Michelle Rippe, 32, won the women’s race in 1:27:34.

Higa was running his first half marathon. “We volunteered here when I was at UPS,” Higa said. “It always looked like fun, but this is the first year I could do it.”

Half marathon runners were surprised by what their GPS watches were telling them after the race. Four runners told The News Tribune they’d run closers to 13.6 miles instead of 13.1.

One runner, Matt Dettloff, from the Chicago area turned and showed his watch to the announcer as soon as he crossed the finish line. He and his girlfriend, Shane Evans, were in town working on goal of running a half marathon in each state. Washington was state No. 24.

Dettloff, who finished third, said he could tell something was wrong in the first mile. Race founders and directors Paul Morrison and Tony Phillippi said there was a course error near the start and said they’d take steps to correct the issue for next year. The other races were accurate.

All personal records and age group records set on the half marathon course still stand, because a course is still considered certified even if it’s too long, Phillippi said.

Dettloff was frustrated but says the error didn’t impact the race.

“I was annoyed, but it was fine,” he said. “We all ran the same distance. … But it was a very well-run race, and we were happy to come out here and do it.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 5:42 AM with the headline "Kate Landau sets new record in 10th Tacoma City Marathon."