NC Championship Race Tightens at Tar Heel 10 Miler
Thirty-year old Steven Anderson, from Jamestown, NC, took the USATF-NC 10-Mile Championship in the Open Males division at the Tar Heel 10 Miler April 18. Anderson finished the race with a time of 55:00 and moved into a three-way tie for the overall series lead with Caleb Masland and Donnie Cowart. Gavin Coombs, 29, from Raleigh was just 13 seconds behind in second place and Jack Ratterree, 17, from Charlotte, was third with time of 56:35. Natalie Lawrence, 32, from Kernersville, took the title in the Open Female division with a time of 1:00:00. Heidi Bretscher, 28, took second place in a time of 1:02:18. The second-place finish gave the Durham resident a two-point series lead over Lawrence and Kari Springer. Amanda Lopiccolo, 32, also from Durham, was third in a time of 1:03:24.
In the Masters races, forty-year-old Paul Mainwaring from Charlotte took the men’s title with a 58:24 finish. Colin Jones, 44, from Raleigh maintained his overall series lead with a second-place finish. Allen Baddour, 43, from Chapel Hill was just 6 second behind Jones in third. Raleigh resident Lorraine Young, 41, won the Masters Female race with a time of 1:02:51 and moved into a three-way tie with Kay Evans and Nancy Kaiser. Jennifer Vandiver, 48, from McLeansville finished second and Carolyn Bachl Stewart, 43, from Raleigh was third.
Hot Competition Expected at Beat the Heat
The Endurance Magazine USATF-NC Long Distance Championship Series will take the heat to the next level at Beat the Heat 5K, the 5K Championship. The race starts at 7:00pm on July 25. With $5000 in prize money and chances of hot weather the race will be smoking hot. Beat the Heat will bring out large numbers over the full range of participants from front runners to those running solely for fun and fitness. The purpose of Beat the Heat is to promote fitness and health, and improve the quality of life for individuals and families. The pre-race and post-race atmosphere is festive and social.
The race starts and finishes near Wake Forest University’s BB&T Football Stadium and the course often yields fast times for runners willing to push the pace and push through a slight uphill around mile two. Once over the hill runners will have a mostly downhill third mile which can often lean toward some fast finishes.
