Hellen Jemutai rolled into Boston like a hurricane and came out of it with a lot new fans (along with some cash and hardware). On Sunday she came in third at the BAA Half with an impressive 1:13:35. As if that wasn’t enough, she laced ‘em up again on Monday and won the Tufts 10k for Women with 32:30. As awe-inspiring as that double was, it wasn’t the story on Monday.

Chelsea Reilly, running her first ever 10k, came away victorious. Her 32:41 paced her four seconds ahead of second place Tara Erdmann and, more importantly, gave her the 2012 US road 10k title.

Here’s some race footage:

Looking at the results makes her performance seem even more impressive.

32:41 5:16 Chelsea Reilly
32:45 5:17 Tara Erdmann
32:51 5:18 Emma Kertesz
32:51 5:18 Neely Spence
32:52 5:18 Jennifer Rhines
32:56 5:18 Stephanie Rothstein
33:00 5:19 Mattie Suver
33:05 5:20 Annie Bersagel
33:06 5:20 Brianne Nelson
33:12 5:21 Katie McGregor
33:27 5:23 Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz
33:36 5:25 Delilah Dicrescenzo
33:43 5:26 Kellyn Johnson
33:49 5:27 Mary Kate Champagne
33:49 5:27 Andrea Walkonen
33:50 5:27 Magdalena Boulet

Included in that list are women who have Olympic Trials experience and even a couple of Olympians. Chelsea didn’t even have 10k experience!

The top ten Americans were brought up on stage and introduced to the crowd and given their awards. Chelsea was given the chance to address the cheering spectators and had this to say:

Madgalena Lewy-Boulet continued on her road to recovery from a torn plantar fascia by winning her age group. Although it must have been disappointing to not finish in the top ten, the former Olympian could take solace in knowing that her pupil won the whole thing. That’s right, Magda coaches Chelsea Reilly. What better way to affirm your training plan than to have your athlete win a national title?

In the team competition (won by Adidas McMillan Elite), a few local clubs showed up in force and finished high up in the standings. The New Balance Boston ‘A’ team (led by Mary Kate Champagne), GBTC ‘Red’ (led Kyle Linn Feldman) and the BAA (led by Heather Cappello) finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively. New England was well represented here, especially with teams like NBB and GBTC entering multiple squads.

Brielle Chabot was one of the top regional finishers (second on her BAA team) and had this say about her race:

The ladies owned the streets of Boston on Monday, and made good use of them. They put on an impressive show of speed and strength, especially by Jemutai and Reilly. With the race over, they’ll disperse and head home, some to gear up for cross country (Boulet), others to take time to rest up after a busy summer/fall (Erdmann). But it was fun having them converge right here in our backyard to put on a show. Who else is fired up to go for a run?

Notes: As soon as this was written, formatted and set to be published, the site crashed and all was lost. Instead of rewriting, etc., I basically tried to recall exactly what I did to replicate it. That can be dangerous, so hopefully I didn’t leave out anything or make any horrible mistakes. Anyway, the PA system was so overwhelmingly loud by the elite staging area that it was nearly impossible to get an interview with our subpar equipment. By the time I ran into Brielle, things quieted down a little, but then the awards ceremony started. Soon after that, people scattered and that was it. For once I was in the right spot, but the conditions didn’t help at all.