Christo Landry of the Mizuno Racing Team earned the USA Men’s 10-Mile national Championship title on Sunday by placing as the top American in the 42nd annual Credit Union Cherry Blossom race in Washington, D.C. Landry, the 27-year-old who grew up in nearby Falls Church, Virginia, set a personal best of 46:41 to finish sixth overall at Cherry Blossom in the race won by Stephen Sambu of Kenya in 45:29.
For Landry, the former William & Mary All American who now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it was his first national road championship after finishing in the top five several times in the past couple of years. “To be honest,” said Landry who took the USA title by 41 seconds, “I am thrilled to get that monkey off my back.”
Although Landry finished more than a minute back of the top Africans, he dominated the Americans from the 5-K mark until the finish. “Every race there are some hard decisions you have to make and mine was around 5-K where I said, ‘I’m going with this group and see what happens.’ I knew I could blow up, but I just wanted to see what happens.”
What happened was Christo Landry won a national championship and earned a total of $5900 in prize money. Congrats Christo!