Hassett Runs Personal Best at Portland Track Festival

Dylan Hassett pre-race.

ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Dylan Hassett ran a personal best in the highly competitive women's 10,000 meters at the Portland Track Festival on Saturday evening. On a cool, clear Oregon evening Hassett lined up with some of North America's top women distance runners in what has become one of the elite distance festivals in the country. After covering the first 1600 meters in a quick 5:15 and then 3200 meters in 10:34, the College of William & Mary graduate passed 5,000 in 16:41. 

Soon after she lost contact with the second pack of runners and ran alone in "no man's land" for the final 4 kilometers. She finished with a new personal best of 34:03.64, besting her previous track best of 34:26.95 by just over 23 seconds. She placed 24th in the field of 32.

Immediately following the women's race, ASICS GTC-ELITE's Mark Leininger took to the track for the men's 10,000. The early pace was very quick with the designated pacers clipping off 66-second laps as they attempted to set up a sub-28:00 minute race. Leininger ran in the back portion of the trailing group and covered the first 1600 in 4:36 and 3K in 8:46, before slightly slowing to 14:47 at 5K. As with his teammate Hassett in the previous event, he also lost contact and ran alone for most of the final 4 kilometers. He finished with a time of 29:48.68 for 24th place in a field of 40. 

Both Hassett and Leininger completed their 2016 track season in a year that saw them both qualify for the USA Olympic Trials Marathon and compete in that event in Los Angeles. 

GTC-ELITE produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles and is sponsored by ASICS, the Greenville Track Club, Performance Therapy, Greenville Health System's North Greenville Hospital, ScanSource, Soleus Running Watches, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery, FinalSurge, Joy Realty, The TD Bank Foundation, The Kroc Center, Carolina Spine and Rehab, The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, the Bare Minimum Track Club and generous individual contributors. ​​​​​

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