May 1, 2006

By Tom Kreager, The Tennessean

Fernando Cabada called it simply "a good workout."

Everyone else is calling it a new Country Music Half Marathon record.

Cabada, a senior distance runner at Virginia Intermont College, shattered the three-year men's half marathon record by three minutes and 57 seconds. Cabada won the race with a time of 1:04:57. Matthew Marcini set the previous record in 2003 with a time of 1:08:54.

With the victory, Cabada was awarded the first Mayor's Trophy.

Cabada's record time came not only in his first half marathon but also on a morning when he said he woke up not feeling well.

"I woke up at 4 in the morning," Cabada, 24, said. "I normally don't get up that early. I didn't really warm up. I didn't make a big deal about it. When the gun went off, everyone was going slow. I didn't want to wait around for anybody.

"I'm the type of runner that doesn't run on how they feel. If I would have done that, I would have slowed down every mile. I knew I could run under 66 minutes. I wanted to run a 65:30 because that's a five-minute pace. But I ended up breaking 65. I was pretty happy of that."

The American half marathon record of 1:00:55 was set in 1985. The world half marathon record is 58:55 and was set Jan. 15.

Last year's winner, Mudasar Haidat, finished second with a time of 1:12:21 -- more than seven minutes slower than Cabada. Haidat, who is a college teammate of Cabada's, won last year's half marathon with a time of 1:10:05.

Heath White finished third, nine seconds behind Haidat.

Nashville's Jacob Carrigan, 25, was the top local finisher. He finished the half marathon with a time of 1:14:27.

Cabada holds the No. 2 ranking in the United States in the 10K and is ranked among the top 20 worldwide. A 10K race is 6.2 miles. The half marathon is 13.1 miles

"I'm using this to train for the USA 25K Championships in two weeks," Cabada said. "I'd like to get a top two there."

Nashville's Benji Jones said he kept with Cabada for the start and led the first mile, but the pace was eventually too much for him.

"I saw him for the first two miles," said Jones, competing in his second Country Music Half Marathon. "I don't know if I was going too fast, because I liked having that cushion" over the rest of the field.

Haidat acknowledged he had a slower day than last year, when he won the half marathon by 11 seconds. He said he got off to a bad start. Haidat estimated Cabada had a 20-second start on him.

"I closed the gap on him, but that took too much out of me," Haidat said. "There was no way I was going to catch him."

Cabada said he normally runs 5K and 10K races. He said it took him a few miles to get comfortable on the course.

"Those first couple of miles were tough," Cabada said. "That second or third mile I wasn't doing very well. But I just kept going."

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