Growing up in the mountains of Azrou, Morocco, Ridouane Harroufi learned a couple of lessons about long-distance running.

First, when he broke mile world-record holder Hicham El Guerrouj's national junior record for 3,000 meters back in 1999, he realized he had some decent leg speed.

Then, competing at altitude over the years, he learned that racing at high-altitude is quite different from sea level, in that once a runner gets into oxygen debt, there is no recovering.

Harroufi displayed his racing skills very well on a misty Memorial Day morning as he defended his Bolder Boulder 10K title with a tremendous kick at the Folsom Field finish to defeat Ethiopians Dmessew Tsega and Gebo Berka. The two front-runners had run put in several surges, or sprints, at the primes -- money bonuses going to the first runner across a designated marker -- at different spots during the race.

But it was Harroufi, 26, who crossed the finish line first, clocking 28 minutes, 32 seconds to win $4,500. It was the fastest winning time in 12 years and the third-fastest Bolder time ever. It made Harrouifi the first back-to-back winner since Thomas Osano in 1991-92.

Ethiopia repeated as team champion, with a 2-3-6 finish, for 11 points. Kenya (20 points) and Team Commonwealth (31) followed, while astar-studded U.S. team, could manage only a 12-14-19, finish -- from Jorge Torres, Ryan Hall, and Ed Torres -- and ended up sixth. The Americans beat only an average squad from Japan and Team Colorado.

"I got my butt kicked," is the way Jorge Torres, a former University of Colorado NCAA champion, put it. "It is disappointing not to perform better in front of our hometown fans."

Harroufi, as could be expected, had quite the opposite reaction.

"I am very happy," he said, after calling his wife, Azizh, who was back in their Albuquerque home with their son, Ali. "I felt tired, but I just tried to keep my pace, and I did not respond to him (Tsega)" when the Ethiopian sprinted for the primes.

"Me, I stayed with my pace and I catch him. At sea level it is no problem, but at altitude, it is hard" to surge and then fall back as Tsega, Berka and John Yuda of the Commonwealth Team did several times.

The pace was very hard from the beginning Monday, with Tsega passing the first mile in 4 minutes, 23 seconds. Jorge Torres was in that front pack of 14, and stayed with the leaders up Pearl Street. But leading into the turn onto Folsom Avenue, he gradually fell back.

Tsega and Berka led the pack of a dozen that passed two miles in 9:01, with Torres in between the leaders and the trailing pack that included Hall, Ed Torres and Boulder's Andrew Letherby of the Commonwealth Team.

"At two miles I realized it was not going to be my day," Jorge Torres said. "Ryan (Hall) and I were talking afterwards, and we said 'OK, normally people going out that fast come back to you.' It didn't work out that way today."

For good reason. Harroufi and Kenyan John Korir are two of the best racers on the roads right now, while Tsega and Berka are among the pool of runners Ethiopian officials will choose to run the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The best way to illustrate the dominance of the front runners was a comment from one young fan, Justin White, who was watching the race with his father. "Look Dad; Ryan has not even turned the corner yet," White said, as he watched the lead pack of four run a 4:32 fifth mile down Pearl Street, with Hall roughly four blocks back.

Hall said he was expecting to run about 30 minutes, just about his final finishing time of 30:07.

"This is a good starting point for me," said Hall, a graduate of Stanford who is the American record holder at 20K and the half marathon, a 2:06 marathoner, and the winner of the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon. "I will put in some good, hard work and be ready for Beijing. You have to be realistic when you come to run here."

After Harroufi won on a kick last year, Tsega was realistic about his chances over the final 400 meters this time around.

"When we came from (Ethiopia) we were ready for a sprint," he said in Amharic, speaking through a translator. But, his teammate Berka added, the Ethiopians had a "terrible" time at the London airport; a 36-hour delay, "with no food, no nothing."

The Ethiopians arrived in Boulder on Thursday, but the delay in London and sleepless night left him with a backache on Monday, Berka said.

Give Tsega and Berka credit for trying to get a big lead on Harroufi down Folsom. The teammates pushed the pace after mile five, getting a seven-second lead on Harroufi and Yuda after the turn onto Folsom.

But on the climb for the final stretch into the stadium, Harroufi cut into the lead, first knocking it down to five seconds, then three. And up the final hill, he passed the leaders just before entering Folsom Field, and then sprinted in for his repeat win.

"I was very happy that I won last year, and happy that I won the next year," said Harroufi. "And I will do my best training to win it again."

For Hall and Torres, the summer holds bigger races. Both put in full weeks of training last week, focusing on Beijing.

"If I was going to have a bad race, it was better that it came here than on the fourth," Torres said, referring to the July 4 finals of the U.S. Olympic trials 10,000 meters. "I'll put this race behind me."

Torres did get one compliment, from his coach, ex-world record holder Steve Jones, "Jonesy said he was happy I didn't give up, and that I kept looking forward."