Thunderbird Men Ready For Half Marathon

The T-Bird men's half marathon team will compete in the 2024 NJCAA Half Marathon at Dorey Park on Tuesday, Nov. 12 starting at 9:15 a.m. EST in Richmond, VA. 

NMJC will have six runners racing on Tuesday in the race in Paul Maurer, Brian Cheruiyot, Cyrus Kimaiyo, Emmanuel Kimaiyo, Israel Takap, and Nathan Bonavida.

The Thunderbirds are the reigning 2023 Half Marathon National Champions. Last year in Huntsville, Ala., Tomas Vega won the individual crown with an NJCAA record time and German Vega placed runner-up.  

Similar to the women's side, the T-Birds lack experience in the race with the exception of Paul Maurer. The Swiss man finished the 2023 half marathon in 48th place with a time of 1:15:16.10.

"At this level, a lot of people, a lot of these runners, have never ran a half marathon before," NMJC men's half marathon coach Jeff Becker said. "So, we're kind of equal to some of the other teams, except for if you had sophomores coming back."

The T-Birds will reset from the cross country side, but the same mantra from Coach Becker will be followed at this national event. 

"So, half marathon it is really kind of the same mindset as nationals, to some extent," Coach Becker said. "We need to just kind of go out relaxed and work their way up. Now the guys typically goes a little bit faster as far as when they start spreading out a little bit quicker than maybe the ladies. So, they'll need to be ready for that, especially our guys that are going to be up towards the top. But the main message was, again, just kind of start out a little bit slower and see how you feel and just move up to see if we can get a trophy."

Live results for the race can be found here. There will be no stream.