Habtamu Cheney, Savannah Berry claim Deseret News 10K titles

A lot of athletes believe that if you have a weakness, you don’t avoid it, you embrace it.

If you struggle with hills, run more of them.

If finding a kick at the end of the race is an issue, make that a focus of your training.

And for Savannah Berry, who said she realized at a very young age that speed was her weakness, the Deseret News 10K gives her a chance to battle that demon.

“I kind of always knew as a kid, and getting coached by several coaches through junior high, high school and college, that I needed to focus on aerobic-based longer distances. I had a weakness in speed stuff. I knew post college, if I was going to continue, based on longer efforts,” she said.

But that didn’t mean she was going to surrender to her speed issues. After graduating from UVU in 2018, she included shorter races to bolster her speed.

It has paid off, including on Wednesday, when Berry, 28, won the Deseret News women’s 10K race with a time of 32:18. It was her second consecutive victory in the race.

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She isn’t thinking about a career in 10Ks — at least not just yet.

“This is kind of training for a bigger race,” she said, noting she’ll be running the 20K US Championships in New Haven, Connecticut, later this year.

“I’m also doing the New York Marathon to help me develop a little more speed,” said Berry, who works part time as an elementary school principal and part-time as an athlete mentor for UVU.

“I loved working at the elementary school, but I felt like there was something missing not having the athlete part of it,” she said.

Like every athlete, Berry knows competing isn’t “a forever thing.”

“But I came from California to a place where I didn’t really know anyone, a new environment, and needed to find people to push me in workouts. It was a difficult transition, and I kind of wanted to help those athletes because I’ve been through the same thing,” she said.

Wednesday’s women’s 10K race was very competitive with Angie Nickerson, 28, earning second place with a time of 32:55. Crossing the line in third place was Lindsey Bradley, 27, who ran the course in 33:13.

In the men’s race, Habtamu Cheney, 25, earned the victory with a time 27:59.

Joey Nokes, 23, was second with a time of 28:09, while JaQuavious Harris, 27, a runner for Salt Lake Community College who won the half marathon last year, was third with a time of 28:15.