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Santa Barbara, California — For rabbitPRO Anthony Costales—whose main focus as a competitor is the road marathon—success at the Moab Trail Marathon was years in the making. Costales finished fourth at the race in 2016 and improved that result to a second place finish in 2017. Improving on that result provided a difficult but tantalizing goal for Costales, who secured victory in the 2018 edition of the race, edging out the second place runner Andy Wacker by just seconds to earn the USATF Trail Marathon Championship. Thinking back on his victory, Costales credited his conservative start for allowing him to finish strong. “This was the first year I felt strong through the last section and cut down the 60 second gap to 10 seconds. In the last mile, as the course flattened out, I was able to find some gears to take the win.”
One week later, Costales’ rabbitPRO teammate Dani Moreno was running to victory as well, winning the 27k race at the Franklin Mountains Trail Runs to become the Sky Running USA Champion. Moreno’s victory—which came in a course record time of 3:18:31—also earned her enough points to secure a win in the season-long Migu points series. For Moreno, whose considerable success on the trails belies the fact that she is still a relative newcomer to the discipline, the victory capped off a dream season full of stellar performances.
Keep an eye out for Costales at the California International Marathon next month, where he’ll have the opportunity to earn the USATF Road Marathon Championship by improving on his fourth place finish at last year’s race. As for Moreno, she’ll be headed to Hawaii on the same day to defend her title as the XTERRA Trail Run World Champion.