Santa Rosa native Kim Conley wins national half-marathon championship

HOUSTON - Kim Conley won the U.S. half-marathon national women’s championship Sunday.

Conley is a Montgomery High School graduate who won the 10,000-meter run at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Sacramento last summer and qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympics team.

She began to pull away from the pack around the 10-mile mark and grew her lead to 22 seconds over Brianne Nelson by the 12-mile mark.

She finished in 1 hour, 9 minutes and 9 seconds and was 32 seconds ahead of runner-up Nelson.

“I love championship style racing, and that’s a big part why I wanted to come to Houston and race this U.S. Half Marathon Championships,” Conley told the Houston Chronicle after running the second half marathon of her career. “I take a huge amount of pride in being able to represent the U.S., so to win a national title here and be able to raise that flag over my shoulders is a very special moment to me.”

Diego Estrada, who became an American citizen in 2011 and lives in Salinas, won the men’s championship. He pulled away late to win the national championship in a time of 1 hour, 51 seconds.