Here is a link to our post-race summary to participants in the 51st Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-Mile Run and 5k Run/Walk that we produced with the Southern Arizona Roadrunners (www.runsar.org)
Whether you did the 5k or the 8-mile, congratulations to all of you for finishing this demanding race!
Thanks to Damion Alexander for riding around around Saguaro in the heat taking photos — race images, including those in this report, can be found at Damion Alexander’s FB page here.
Damion also made an awesome Saguaro race video — you can see it on my facebook page here.
We hope to see you at upcoming SAR-calendared events, the September 18th TMC Tucson 10k/5k; the September 24th Sabino Canyon FitKidz free mile; and the September 25th Jim Click’s Run n Roll at the UArizona campus.
LINK TO RESULTS
All winners receive gift certificates to long-time race sponsor The Running Shop. If you’re one of the top Saguaro finishers, you can pick up your award before the end of September.
If you have any questions about your results, please contact our race timer, Greg Wenneborg at greg@roadrunnerracetiming.
You can see overall 8-Mile results here: http://www.roadrunnerracetiming.com/results.html
You can see 8-Mile age group results here: https://results.roadrunnerracetiming.com/09_05_228mage.htm
You can see 5k overall results here: https://results.roadrunnerracetiming.com/09_05_225k.htm
You can see 5k age group results here: https://results.roadrunnerracetiming.com/09_05_225kage.htm
No athletes signed up for a non-binary division.
WINNERS, RESULTS, & AWARDS
For the second year in a row, we tried the so-called “rolling start” for the 8-miler through the Saguaro National Park. While this seems to be a popular way to ease start line congestion and to enable folks to run before the sun becomes dangerous, unfortunately it seems to diminish the overall racing aspect.
Thus, special congratulations to our top runners, who, while not crossing the finish line first, ran the fastest times of the morning.
8-Mile Top Finishers
First overall was Jeff Gautreau, a former U of Arizona and Salpointe Catholic High School standout. Jeff finished in a stellar time of 46:14, outpacing the competition by more than a minute.
Second place was long-time Tucson triathlon ace Jesse Vondracek, in a time of 47:28, 62 seconds faster than third-place finisher Orlando Vasquez. Jesse is 40 and Orlando is 45, meaning they were the top two 40+ runners in the race, but because they were so fast and placed in the top three, the top official Master’s male is listed as 45-year-old Jason Collins who ran 53:06.
Rising local standout Claire Hans of The Workout Group took the women’s title in a time of 59:03, good for 20th place overall. Claire snagged third last year, so it was nice to see her improvement.
In second place in a time of 61:33 was past champion Janet Holland, still one of the top regional runners at 63 — she was one of the few folks who beat their age. (At this writing we’re still figuring out that award…) Third place was Sahuarita’s Lisa Schlink, in fine time of 1:02:47. First official Master’s woman was Marjanne Magana in 1:05:24.
We think both Paul Robillia and Merry Dearmon set Arizona State age group records — nicely done both of you!
5k Winners
In the 5k, William Newberg from Gig Harbor, Washington took first place in 17:02, while Debra Lazar of Tucson ran 22:54 to snag top female honors.