Kimberley Smith has won the women's title at the Boston Half Marathon with a time of 1 hour 10 minutes 57 seconds this morning.
By winning the race, Smith also collected US$100,000 for the best overall combined times in a three-race series that features the Boston 5km and 10km, run earlier this year.
The 30-year-old from Papakura, now based in Providence, Rhode Island, went into today's competition with a 16-second lead in the Medley over Ethiopia's Aheza Kiros, so her strategy was to keep Kiros in sight but not push the pace.
"We were going so slow at the start. It was weird," said Smith, who finished 15th in the London Olympic Marathon.
Smith and Kiros ran together for the first half of the race, before Smith made her break.
"We were both throwing in some surges after about halfway," said Smith. "And then at about the nine-mile mark I threw in one last surge and got away. I got a bit of a gap and just kept it going."
Smith hit the 15km mark in 50:23, with a five-second lead on Kiros, and widened her lead to the end of the 21km race. Kiros eventually finished nearly two minutes behind Smith in 1:12:50.
Smith's next race is the New York Marathon on November 4.
