Sept. 26, 2004 – Lisah Hamilton of St. Croix ran a personal best and was the10th female overall with a time of 1 hour, 15 minutes and 23 seconds in the Philadelphia Distance Run Half-Marathon the weekend of Sept. 18-19.
The race attracted more than 7,000 runners, and Hamilton finished third in her age group, according to a release from Wallace Williams, secretary of the Virgin Islands Track and Field Federation.
Beginning her athletic career as a swimmer at the age of seven with the St. Croix Dolphins, she moved on to Widner University where she was a standout on the swim team and the cross-country team. She moved up to the marathon this year after competing internationally for the Virgin Islands as a middle distance runner.
She ran her first marathon in June at the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in San Diego where she placed seventh and ahead of several thousand female runners and finishing just under the qualifying time for the Athens Olympic Marathon. She was the first-place finisher in the Runner’s World Half-Marathon this summer and the top finisher in several races in the Philadelphia area.
Hamilton is planning to qualify for and compete in the World Championships Marathon in August of 2005 in Helsinki, Finland. Her performance in San Diego makes her the top black American female runner and one of the top three in North America, Williams said.
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