ASICS GTC-ELITE at Raleigh Relays

Kimberly Ruck and Alison Parris.

ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE athletes Kimberly Ruck and Alison Parris ran their first 5,000s of the 2015 Outdoor track season on a cold and damp Friday night at North Carolina State's Paul Derr track in the Raleigh Relays. 

Parris got things started as she placed second in the second fastest of five sections, which had a combined total of over 120 women compete. She ran an impressive 16:29.99 and just missed her personal best of 16:27. That placed her 17th in the overall composite results (5 sections combined). Her teammate, Ruck, hung with the very competitive lead pack as they passed 3,000 meters in 9:35 and although slowing some over the final two kilometers, finished with a fine time of 16:19.49. She placed 11th in the fastest section and the same in the overall results. 

"I am disappointed in that I couldn't maintain the pace after 3K, as I believed I was prepared to break 16 minutes and better my personal best (16:01)," she commented following the race. "My workouts have been going well, so I'll just get ready to keep improving in my upcoming races."  

Ruck is scheduled to compete in the 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational next week in California, while Parris is targeting another 5,000 in the coming weeks. 

GTC-ELITE is sponsored by ASICS, the 43-year old Greenville Track Club, Performance Therapy, Greenville Health System's North Greenville Hospital, ScanSource, Soleus Running Watches, Boston Bill Sunglasses, The TD Bank Foundation, The Kroc Center, Carolina Spine and Rehab, The Proaxis Running Academy, ElliptiGO, the Bare Minimum Track Club and generous individual contributors.

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