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Saturday, January 10, 2009 -- Fairmont, WV / MCPARC Trail and Caperton Trail, Prickett's Fort State Park
Run to Read Half-Marathon (iPO Event Id#: 11218)

2009: [Details] [Coverage] [Overall Results] [Results by Class]

[2007] [2008]

Tres Hombres y Tres Senoritas

Story by Jim Woolfitt with photos by Alyson Piot

Run to Read photos by Alyson Piot
A trio of runners, tres hombres, from Frostburg, MD, finished in the top overall top 4 overall. Jaron Hawkins was a repeat winner, Jeremy Rice improved from 5th last year to 3rd this year and Daniel Dewitt was 4th this year. Hawkins's winning time of 1:12:15 was over a minute better than last year's 1:13:18. Rice improved over 50 seconds from last year going from 1:18:55 to 1:18:04. DeWitt's time was 1:18:05.

David McCollam of Bridgeport was the top WV finisher for the 3rd year in a row by finishing 2nd overall. The former Alderson Broaddus College runner improved from 1:14:09 last year to 1:12:58 this year. McCollam won the Run to Read 15K last June.

Three women, tres senoritas, from the University of Illinois cross country team registered Saturday morning. Elizabeth Boyle took 2nd overall (1:29:53.0) while Theresa Brokaw finished third - just a step behind her fellow Illini with a time of 1:29:53.5 Teammate Carolyn Tysse was second in her age group (15-19).

Run to Read photos by Alyson Piot
Heather Parks of Bruceton Mills was the women's overall champion winning in 1:28:19. Parks completed a trifecta of sorts as she has won the last 3 Run to Read events + this half marathon and both the 15K and 5K at the Run to Read Races on June 21, 2008.

Cameron High School was represented by a trio of runners: Jared Dunn, Austin Chambers & Quintin Sponaugle. Other scholastic runners included Sterling Snyder of Preston who finished 5th overall, Grafton's Drew Woodford who won all state honors in cross country last fall & Doddridge County's Zac Cunningham. Capital High was represented by Chelsea Jarvis & Luke Teel. Other high cross country runners participating were Jennifer van der Sloot of University High & Buckhannon-Upshur's Justin Miller.

We had 181 official finishers plus 3 "banditos"; down from last year's 185 registered finishers. We're blaming the dire weather forecasts for causing a lot of no-shows. It was miserable running with temps around 40 and a very chilly rain.

A runner from Colorado registered Saturday morning bring the number of states represented to eleven.

Run to Read photos by Alyson Piot
There were 41 runners from PA, 10 from MD, 5 from Illinois and 2 from Iowa. Virginia and Ohio each had 4 runners while Texas, Wisconsin, Vermont & Colorado were each represented by 1 runner. (There were also runners from West Virginia.)

Linesville, PA, resident Dan Dygert finished 9th overall & has finished 9th or better all 4 years. Chelsea Jarvis of Clendenin, WV, finished 4th overall among women and she has finished 4th or better among women all 4 years.

We wish to thanks the Marion County Parks and Recreation Commission, who help make this event possible by furnishing manpower and trucks in support of the race. Thanks also to the Prickett's Fort Foundation, the Marion County Rescue Squad, our local Pepsi distributor for the Sobe & Aquafina and all of our wonderful volunteers who give up a Saturday for this race.

We plan to have DVDs of the race for sale within 3 to 4 weeks. Feel free to email us if you would like to buy a copy. We also plan to post a link to youtube.com.

Next year's date is set for January 9, 2010.