Salinas native Diego Estrada was well on pace to win last year’s Wharf to Wharf after he stayed in front of the leading pack during the first half of the race.
That was until he made the tiniest of the most minute mistakes by running to the right side of the roundabout near The Crow’s Nest restaurant instead of staying left with the group.
Estrada had an extra surge left in the tank but he used most of it to play catch up, forcing him to lose momentum and the race by a mere two seconds.
He got redemption on Sunday by winning the 51st Wharf to Wharf in 27 minutes, 14 seconds, falling onto the concrete road near the finish line on Cliff Drive in a bit of pain following a grueling performance on the six-mile course.
“Now I feel good,” said Estrada, who was hanging out by the ceremony stage awaiting his first place plaque. “But when I crossed the finish line, I felt pretty horrible. It was one of those days where you’re not feeling great. I ran in the first mile, I knew that was gonna be my pace for the rest of the race. And once we slowed down a little, I was like, that’s not good for me. Because once we get to the downhill, I’m in trouble.”
Estrada, 33, managed to pull away from Kenyans Josphay Kipchirchir (27:47) and Shadrack Keter (27:49) who finished second and third, respectively.
Estrada won $5,000 in prize money—$4,000 for first place and $1,000 bonus for the top American.
Watsonville native Julian Vargas, a former standout at St. Francis High School, took ninth in 22:29 and was the top local male.
“I would never expect to be the top local for this,” Vargas said. “There’s so many athletes in our area. They’re all really good and they’re all very competitive.”
One of his goals was to be on pace with at least one of the professional runners or one that was signed to a brand.
Vargas, who last year competed at Xavier University, said he was thrilled to catch two of the runners on the course and being able to finish with a sub 30-minute mark was just the icing on the cake.
“Feels great, I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work and it finally paid off,” he said. “I’ve just been running mileage mostly all summer, no hard workouts, just straight mileage.”
During the third mile, Vargas mentioned his stomach began to hurt and luckily he saw a water station where he refueled for the rest of the race.
“There’s so many athletes in our area, they’re all really good and they’re all very competitive,” he said. “It feels great to be the top local.”
Estrada hails from Monterey County but he still considers himself a local who was able to accomplish something in what is essentially his backyard, as well.
“It’s one of the biggest accomplishments for me because in high school you always talk about the Whaf [to Wharf],” he said. “I’ve always wanted to win this race and I thought those times were over for me when I retired at the end of 2021. To me, it’s just a big validation that I still have a little bit left in the sport.”
On Sunday, Estrada hit that sharp left at the dreaded roundabout that connects Fifth Avenue and East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. This year he was able to press the rest of the pack to make them feel what he went through in 2022.
“I felt kind of mean doing that but that’s what gave me the read of how they were feeling,” he said.
Estrada remembers hearing heavy breathing around him, yet he never once looked behind his shoulder or lost his stride, distancing himself from the rest of the pack during the fourth mile en route to his first-ever Wharf to Wharf victory.
“That was the only move I had,” he said. “I put everything into that move and I was like, if anybody just covers it, I’ll give it my best and that’s what it is.”
Estrada, a former standout at Alisal High School and Northern Arizona University, said the local talent pool is deep. However, he mentioned one thing they’re not exposed to enough is the high competition level such as in Southern California.
“A lot of our kids don’t really flourish and show those times,” he said.
Estrada said most student-athletes nowadays pick academics over running and they tend to attend schools such as UC Berkeley or Stanford University, which he believes is still great.
“But I think that if a lot of our kids stuck with it longer, then we’d be seeing some great things,” he said.
Scotts Valley native and Nike runner Vanessa Fraser, who last competed in the event in 2014, finished 16th in 35:09 to claim her spot as the top local female.
Ethiopian Tigist Ketema won the women’s race in 29:51 and earned $4,000 in prize money. Kenyan Sarah Naibei (30:11) took second, followed by Ethiopian Werkuha Getachew (30:37) in third.
At one point, Fraser stood on the sideline suffering from severe cramping a little more than five miles into the race. She thought about walking back the entire way, possibly even calling it quits.
“I didn’t think I was gonna finish just because my individual goals were to be a little bit higher up,” she said. “Then I saw Ashlyn [Boothby], the Scotts Valley [High] runner, coming up and I said, ‘I’ll finish with her,’ so that was really special.”
Fraser, 27, a former standout at Scotts Valley High and Stanford University, finished just one second ahead of Ashlyn Boothby (35:10), an incoming senior for the Falcons’ cross country and track teams.
“I was so surprised, that was like such a special experience,” Boothby said.
