Sunday, September 27, 1998 -- Elkins
Forest Festival 10K Run and 5K Walk
[Coverage/Recap w/Pics]
[More Pics Set 1]
[More Pics Set 2]
[Results]
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The masses take to the streets of Elkins
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An unseasonably warm and sunny afternoon greeted the runners at the
Forest Festival 10K Run on Sunday, September 27th. The race got
underway at 1:00pm starting from downtown Elkins. The course took the
racers through town for several flat blocks before they headed out to
rolling hills on country roads. The end of the route had the runners
returning into town to retrace their steps back to the start/finish.
Overall, it was a nice 6-mile course, but the heat of the afternoon
surely took its toll on many of the racers.
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Derek Finegan built a huge lead on his way to the finish
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Once the race began, it was Larry Taylor and Derek Finegan who quickly
moved out ahead of the crowd. After little more than a mile, Taylor
could not maintain the grueling pace. Soon Finegan began to distance
himself and continued to build on his lead to the finish. Taylor
finished the race second in 36:23, but this was more than two minutes
behind Finegan's winning time of 33:57.
Left to fight for a third place overall finish was a group of four
runners, Drew Jones, Joey Herron, Murshid Latif and Jim Severino.
This bunch ran together for the better part of the first four miles.
With a bit of an uphill at this point, Jones and Herron surged with
Latif (38:12, 5th) and Severino (38:30, 6th) unable to hang on. For
the last two miles Herron paced Jones with both seeming content to let
the duel be decided with a sprint finish. In what the two agreed was
the hardest they'd ever sprinted for a race finish, Jones (37:29, 3rd
overall) was able to out run Herron (37:30, 4th overall) to the tape.
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From shades to shoelaces, Amy Riggleman (3rd F) ran with style
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The race for the afternoon's speediest female saw Jessica Taylor jump
out to an early lead. This lead held until the second mile where
Ryann Metheny was able to pull even with her. Metheny (43:53, 1st
Female) then slowly put a gap on Taylor which she was able to take
to the finish. The next action saw Amy Riggleman also catch Taylor
and run with her for the fourth and fifth miles. But this time
Taylor had an answer and was able to pull away from Riggleman over the
final mile. Taylor's finishing time of 44:19 was good enough for the
second overall female while Riggleman followed nine seconds back at
44:28 for third.
After all the weary bodies made their way across the finish, it was
time to get in out of the heat. The "Post-Race Party" was held in the
downtown Seneca Mall were the awards were handed out along with plenty
of cool beverages. Many thanks go out to all the volunteers and to the
race sponsor, Acordia of West Virginia.