Horton wins Wears Valley 15K
Photos and story by Michael deLisle of the Knoxville Track Club
TOWNSEND – A foggy and resplendent Sunday morning greeted the faithful as the Knoxville Track Club presented the 33rd annual Wears Valley 15K road race.
With weather in the mid 60′s and foggy, the race started with 164 runners, and ended with 152 crossing the finish line after 9.32 miles.
Shortly after the pistol shot rang out through the Little River Valley, Team Runners Market’s Alan Horton and Bobby Holcombe burst out of the fog into the lead. Many of the area’s best road racers followed in pursuit.
Strong competition was on hand for both the men and the women.
By the top of the first major hill, Alan Horton had gapped everyone. Horton, 29, of Knoxville, went on to take the crown, his first victory at Wears Valley with a time of 50:06.
With only a 9 second difference in finish times, Holcombe, 36, of Knoxville, held off a strong challenge from collegian Paul Thames, 22, of Newport, to earn second place overall. Thames, running a strong race throughout, was third. Their times were 52:00 and 52:09, respectively.
Knoxvillian, Emily Mack, 22, outran all the female runners to claim the top spot, coming in at 1:01:51. Tracy Brooks, 26, of Harrogate and Marsha Morton, 43, of LaFollette were 2nd and 3rd, respectively with 1:03:32 and 1:05:37 times.
Local runner, Summer Robinson, 32, of Maryville, placed first in her age division out of a field of 12 others. Overall, she place 25th with a time of 1:06:01.
Other Blount County participants with their overall place and finish times included: 19th, Joshua Gahagan, 31, Maryville, 1:03:35; 20th, Brent Bueche, 48, Maryville, 1:03:40; 24th, Leslee Hege, 41, Maryville, 1:06:01; 27th, Mark Hickey, 43, Alcoa, 1:07:06; 28th, Jennifer Brigatti, 30, Maryville, 1:07:32; 31st, Carrie Stephens, 37, Maryville, 1:08:58; 32nd, David Schmidt, 45, Maryville, 1:09:36; 40th, Jeff Beard, 39, Maryville, 1:12:16; 48th, Christopher Harris, 37, Maryville, 1:13:14; 52nd, David Snell, 43, Maryville, 1:14:24; 55th, Renee Leonard, 37, Maryville, 1:14:39; 101st, Laura Ward, 50, Townsend, 1:22:54; 109th, Juli Simms, 31, Maryville, 1:25:33; 129th, Chris Jones, 33, Maryville, 1:34:56; and 142nd, Michelle Hodge, 34, Maryville, 1:42:28.
The next race scheduled for Townsend is the Wimberly Lawson Townsend 10K on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009; which also includes a one mile fun run/walk. See race details at: http://ktc.org/Applications2009/Townsend09.pdf.
The Knoxville Track Club (KTC) is among the top ten largest track and field clubs in the United States. The KTC encourages life-long physical well-being through running and walking, and offers year round programs that include running and walking events for people of all ages. KTC’s youth program provides a year round program in track & field and cross country for area youth. For more information, see online at: www.ktc.org.
Craig Taylor Brown of the News Courant contributed to this report.
