Near perfect weather for 13th annual County Marathon

Administrator | Oct 02, 2016 | Comments 0

Jen Ronan was part of the Team Green Point Road Runners including Ej Kolb, Will Ronan and Edward Hutchings.

Evans Michael rounds the bend at Bloomfield.

With just a sprinkle of early morning rain, more than 600 runners in the 13th annual County Marathon saw near perfect conditions for their challenge.

Evans Michael, of Hamilton and Kenya, was first to cross the County Marathon finish line Sunday in two hours and 46.50 minutes.

Teresa Fekensa running down Mill Street.

Reigning champion for the past three years Gilbert Kiptoo, also of Kenya, was unable to compete this year due to an injury.

Teresa Fekensa, of Toronto, made his way to second spot in 2:48:47, followed by John Bauer, of Oshawa, in 3:01:26.

Tadesse Bedada, of Ethiopia, was the first half marathon participant to cross the finish line in 1:14:34; followed by Hugh Langley, of Ottawa, in 1:15:07 and Steven Lambruschini, of Ottawa, in 1:21:40.

There were 126 participants in the full marathon – 51 women and 75 men. There were 365 running in the half marathon – 226 women and 139 men.

Deb Seeley, of Seeley’s Cinqo, had three generation running and placed fifth. Runners included Doug Seeley, Shannon Seeley-Bell, Leslie Seeley Kleinsteuber and Rick VanVlack.

Twenty-five teams competed in the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation Team Challenge.

Crossing the finish in first place were the It’s Running Wild team from Belleville, of Rob Haggarty, Boyd Whyte, Lorne Singer, Alison Haggarty and Trish Sagriff.

Running their first marathon were members of Team Mayor Quaiff’s Quicksteppers – Gord Fox, Jim Dunlop, Bill Roberts, Steve Ferguson and Robert Quaiff.

“We are all very happy with our times and training, a couple of us even jogged part of it,” said Quaiff. “I felt really good about my time and pace. Tracy Young Powers did an amazing job training us and we got lots of encouragement along the way.”