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Instead, the Wheeling runner wound up settling for fifth place and ended his morning propped up on a cot in the medical tent with an ice pack strapped to the front of his lower left leg.
“I started having problems with my legs a little over a month ago,” said Moore, now in his second full season as a professional road racer and a member of Team Saucony.
“We didn’t know if it was shin splints or a stress fracture because I had symptoms of both.
“I was planning to take a couple of weeks off after this race anyway so my coach and I decided just to try to race through the pain.”
It almost worked.
“John DeBlasis over at Wheeling Hospital fixed me up with some orthotics (shoe inserts),” said Moore. “They really helped but I can’t wear them to run in.”
Moore ran through the pain well enough to finish fifth.
His time of 1:07:16 was good enough to make him the first American runner and the first local runner across the finish line for the second straight year.
Isaac Arusei, who finished third behind Moore in last year’s Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic, ran away with this year’s event in a time of 1:03:21.
Kenneth Korir was second in 1:04:30 with Reuben Chebii third in 1:05:48. Ibrahim Limo beat Moore across the line by 10 seconds to take fourth in 1:07:06.
“I felt fine on the flats and the uphill but when I got to the downhill on 29th Street, it started hurting really bad,” Moore said.
“By the time I got to Washington Avenue, it was pretty much everything I could do just to stay in the race for the last two miles.”
It was somewhat ironic that Moore’s problems arose on the long descent from Bethlehem down into Elm Grove.
That’s where Moore, whose strength as a runner is on the downhills, had originally planned to launch his assault.
“That was the gameplan,” said Moore. “My coach and I talked about staying with the pack on the uphill at 29th Street and making a move on the downhill.
“That was the strategy, but by the time I was halfway down the hill, I knew it just wasn’t working for me today.”
Moore is hopeful that the injury won’t throw too serious of a crimp into his plans for the year.
But the first item on his agenda this week will be finding out the exact nature of the problem.
“I’m going to be seeing the guys at Wheeling Hospital,” said Moore. “They’ve been great with me the last couple of weeks trying to get me ready to race.
“The orthotics seemed to correct the overall pain and fatigue in my legs but there’s a spot with some localized pain that might be a stress fracture. We’re going to get that checked out this week.”
Moore — whose ultimate goal is a spot on the U.S. Olympic marathon team — had planned to take some time off after this weekend’s race before starting his buildup to a fall marathon.
But the answers he receives in the next few days will set the timetable.
“I was pointing to the Twin Cities Marathon in October,” said Moore, “but if it is a fracture, you’re looking at a layoff of four to six, maybe eight weeks.
“If that’s the case, I’ll probably have to point to a later marathon.
“Hopefully, there’s no fracture and we’ll find out it’s something I can take care of in a couple of weeks.
“I trust my doctors completely and I’ll do what they tell me to do.”
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Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic