About 810 runners participated in the 3K and 8K races, which started and finished at Heritage Park, up from last year’s combined total of 661.
“I think we might have lost a couple of people because of the rain, but it still ended up being a record-setting day,” said event organizer Jerry Miller. “The event has just grown every year. It’s a flat, fast course. People seem to really enjoy it.”
Chris McIsaac, a 2006 graduate of Capital High School, led virtually the entire way in winning the 8K race, finishing in 25 minutes, 18 seconds.
“I’ve always wanted to come back home and run in it, but for one reason or another it never quite worked out until this year,” said McIsaac, a seven-time cross country and track letter winner at Linfield College, who now serves as an assistant coach for the Wildcats cross country team. “It’s a great course to sharpen up on. Today went really smooth for me. I kind of just took the lead from the start and pulled away.”
Andrew Prentice was second overall, stopping the clock in 26:08.
Olympia’s Karen Steen, who captured the 3K female title last year, was the first female finisher in the 8K and 29th overall with a time of 31:13.
One runner absent from the field was defending 8K champion John Riak, a North Thurston graduate and All-American runner at St. Martin’s University.
Riak became the second runner to finish the event under 25 minutes with a winning time of 24:57 last year – 28 seconds off John Moore’s 2008 record-setting time.
Riak, who also won the 2010 Capitol City Marathon in a record time of 2 hours, 31 minutes, has been sidelined with shin splints, an injury which also forced him to miss this year’s Capitol City Marathon in May.
In the 3K, 17-year-old Jacob Smith of Wenatchee successfully defended his title, winning the race in 9:09, 24 seconds in front of runner-up Alex Morris. Smith set a course record (9:00.9) last year.
Madison Tirrell finished first in the female 3K and third overall with a time of 9:43.
All the runners from this year’s race hadn’t even crossed the finish line before Miller turned his attention to next year’s event, which he hopes has one significant enhancement.
“The big news is that we are announcing the addition of a half marathon to next year’s event,” Miller said. “We are going over the course right now. We are going to utilize several of the nearby bike trails. It should be an easy course to monitor. We are currently trying to get certified and we should know within a month if it will be approved.”
According to Miller, routes for both the 3K and 8K races will not be altered next year to accommodate the addition of the half marathon.
“There’s a lot of interest in the half marathon distance right now,” Miller said. “It’s a distance people can train towards that doesn’t take as much out of you as a marathon. Everyone I’ve talked to is excited about it.”
