A certain pro football quarterback arguably is the reigning king of Pittsburgh sports, but Heather Kampf showed the Steel City once again who is queen of American road miling.

The Minnesotan added to her growing list of road victories, storming home to successfully defend her title in the GNC Live Well Liberty Mile. The victory in 4 minutes, 31.8 seconds was the fifth significant road mile win in the past two years for Kampf, who set an event record in the process.

“I think people are starting to catch on to the way I like to run road miles and they’re trying to reverse it and put things more in their favor,” said Kampf, who ran 4:35.9 in winning the inaugural race in 2012. “I had a few more people following right behind me in the shadows today rather than me sort of lurking in the race somewhere.”

As the leaders covered the first quarter-miles in 1:07 and 2:20, Kampf maintained her place in the field as it made a pair of right-hand turns to open up a distant view of the finish. With 440 yards to go, the clock said 3:26. 

“Coming down the hill on this one, especially, you can see the finish line even longer than I feel like you can in most road miles,” Kampf said. “I definitely at one point thought we must be past the three-quarters mark, and then I could see in the distance on my right the three-quarters mark. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I thought we were almost there.’ ”

But when it came time to sprint, nobody in the field of 14 could match the 26-year-old’s kick or inspiration.