Motivated Campos Wins Army 10-Miler

With prerace encouragement from his coach echoing in his mind, and the sting of losing last year's race in the final 50 meters nearly as fresh, Reginaldo Campos Jr. shook the last of his competitors at Mile 8 and went on to win the 24th Army Ten-Miler in 48 minutes 59 seconds yesterday at the Pentagon.

"This is your year to win," Campos said his coach told him privately just before the start, after providing the Brazilian military squad its marching orders in defense of the team title.

"That made me feel good," the baby-faced Campos, 21, said through an interpreter. "That is what I thought of when I took the lead."

In last year's Army Ten-Miler, Campos's first U.S. race, teammate Jose Ferreira waited until he saw the tape to break away and win. Yesterday, Campos made sure neither Ferreira nor anyone else had such a chance. His victory ensured in the home stretch, Campos had time to grab a Brazilian flag from his coach and wave it the final 50 meters.

"First, I like more," Campos said.

Ferreira, 32, who ran with the leaders for the first six miles, faded to fifth in 50:03. "I feel happy because our team won," Ferreira said through an interpreter. "This year was his year."

Like Campos, Ferreira is an army private in Rio de Janeiro. Josueldo Nascimento, 27, another Brazilian military runner, took third, and his teammate, Marcelo Vecchi, 38, finished ninth.

Steve Hallinan, 22, a middle-distance track specialist who graduated from American University in May, ran 49:12 to finish a surprising second in his first 10-mile road race. Hallinan ran conservatively for five miles before establishing a comfortable rhythm and gradually moving up.

"I came out here with expectations not too high," he said. "And I didn't want to get into trouble in the first half. In the last mile, I thought I had a chance [to catch Campos], because I was gaining on him. But I really can't be too disappointed."

Veena Reddy, from Arlington, likewise executed a steady race plan in which she moved up from eighth place early to the lead by Mile 8. She won in 58:08, 37 seconds ahead of Meseret Kotu, from Ethiopia.

"The leaders went out above their heads, I'm sorry to say," said Reddy -- hardly seeming sorry. "But I ran even the whole way. My goal was to run 58 minutes. This was definitely fun. The crowds, the spectators, it felt like a really big race."

Reddy ran 2:38:08 and finished 15th in the U.S. Olympic trials marathon in April. She and her husband, Bart Borghuis, are preparing for the Amsterdam Marathon in his native Netherlands on Oct. 19.

Last year's winner, Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova, succumbed to the stress of a minor car accident and an otherwise difficult trip to the race from outside Atlanta and finished 10th in 1:01:22. "She's very upset," said Sultanova-Zhdanova's Foot Solutions team manager, Sue Bozgoz. "She wants to prove that age isn't a factor" -- Sultanova-Zhdanova, a former Russian national team member, is 47 -- "and she wants to encourage other runners her age to keep going."

Costa Rican Olympic marathoner Gabriela Traña, another Foot Solutions athlete, finished third in 59:08. Four-time Army winner Alisa Harvey, 43, from Manassas, was the first masters runner, ninth overall, in 1:00:57. "It gets harder every year," she said.

Steve Crane, of Silver Spring, the favorite in the men's race, ran with the leaders early on but struggled in the second half.

Chuck Moeser, 57, from Herndon, competed for the first time in 18 months and ran 58:20.