There was almost an event for everyone Saturday morning in the 47th running of the Chickamauga Chase.
As has been the case from the beginning, there was the 15K main event that attracted 373 finishers while another 392 took part in the 5K. And yet another 126 decided to stay off the road and participate in the eight-mile trail run.
And while weather in recent days has been less than desirable with too much rain, everything was about perfect as an early-morning fog gave way to overcast skies before the sun did finally decide to make an appearance.
Geno Phillips, Jack Findley and Mark Malecky were the overall winners in these three races and only the trail run was close as Malecky passed early leader Cullum Boyd less than a quarter mile from the finish line to prevail with a time of 54 minutes, 29 seconds.
Boyd was a close second in 54:33.
The two races on the road were solo efforts as Phillips won the 9.3-mile event in 51 minutes, 55 seconds while runner-up Dean Thompson crossed the line in 55:29.
And Findley’s time in the 3-1-mile test was 16:48, which was substantially ahead of Lucas Stocks, who was second in 17:22.
While Phillips and Thompson were the top two finishers in the 15K, Hugh Enicks was third in 57:01. Jeremy Miller and Kevin Huwe were fourth and fifth with times of 58:34 and 59:37, respectively.
Those five were the only runners to break an hour for the looping and scenic course.
Sara Gibson was the class of the women’s field as she finished 12th overall in 1:05:36. Kelly McCarthy was second in 1:07:34 as she was 20th overall while Rachel Jones was third in 1:08:30, which was 22nd overall.
Lisa Logan and Laura Wagner were fourth and fifth overall with times of 1:09:20 and 1:09:49, respectively, which were 32nd and 37th overall.
While Findley was the fastest in the 5K, Jennifer Stocks was the first female as she finished fourth overall out of 392 with a time of 18:25. She was the overall female winner in the 15K last year.
Stephanie Silvers and Skye Remko followed with times of 22:46 and 23:17, respectively.
While Malecky and Boyd had a battle for first place in the trail run, Fred Edgemon snagged third in 57:48.
Kiersten Boyd was the female winner in the trail run as she finished ninth overall in 1:03:22. Jan Gautier was 13th to take second in 1:06:44 while Mary Wood was third in 1:07:53.
It was really easy to tell who ran which race as most of the trail runners had mud all over them as the recent rain really made for a sloppy course. There were also several swollen creeks to cross, but nobody seemed to mind that.
“That course is tough and this is the slowest winning time I’ve ever had here,” said the 43-year-old Phillips after claiming his third 15K win on this course, adding this year's event to those in 2009 and 2012.
“Jack was running the 5K and he led until they turned around, but I basically ran by myself the whole way. I could have gone faster if I’d had some company, but it’s always fun to win. And this race is my favorite race on the Chattanooga Track Club schedule by far,” the Red Bank Middle School teacher and coach nodded.
Thompson is working toward his 50th birthday in September and he’s pretty fit at that age, but he was in pain and struggling when he finally crossed the finish line on the road just below Wilder Tower.
“It was awful as my sciatic nerve is killing me. I didn’t think I’d be able to finish without walking and I thought at one point I might even fall down. Geno was too far ahead, but I kept looking back in hopes that Hugh wouldn’t catch me. I never felt good the entire race,” he responded.
Enicks is a three-time winner of the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon and he does quite a bit of training on these roads, so he knows the course as well as anybody.
“I had a good run today. I just wanted to win the Grand Masters award and get in the top five, so I’m happy. I know every step of this course, but I just let Geno and Dean go and I just ran my own race. I was only about 30 seconds off of last year’s time, so that wasn’t too bad,” he explained.
Gibson is a 30-year-old physical therapist who did much better the second time she ran it than the first.
“I think I did it about five or six years ago, but I ran a lot faster today since was just getting into running back then,” he said after catching her breath and getting a swig of water.
“This course is so pretty and serene. I was hoping to be closer to an hour, but I’ve been having some stomach issues lately. I really like this distance, but there aren’t many 15K races around,” she added.
Findley was the half-marathon winner here last fall, but he opted for the shorter race as he’s been working on improving his speed in recent weeks.
“It was a great run today. I got here late, but I was hoping to go under 16:20. My watch died right after we started, so I didn’t know what my pace was. Lucas was with me for the first mile or so, but I left him on the way back,” the 28-year-old commercial insurance salesman nodded.
Malecky is proving that he can do just about any distance and do it well. Just last September, he posted an impressive time of 11:02 in his first Ironman distance.
He also showed that he’s pretty good on trails as well.
“It was really muddy out there, but I was expecting that after all the rain we’ve gotten this week. I was in second place the whole way as Cullum set the pace early. I felt good and decided to see what I could do at the end.
“I think I passed him with about 200 yards to go as I was working hard at the end. And I just hoped that he wouldn’t pass me back, but this is the first time I’ve ever won a race and it was a pretty neat experience,” the 37-year-old chemical engineer for Wacker explained.
Jack McFarland was present and competed for the 47th straight year. He’s an 80-year-old fellow from Atlanta who walks the 5K these days and he was joined by his daughter Gayle for Saturday’s race.
McFarland, who was wearing bib number 47, was also one of the original 110 runners to completed the first Peachtree 10K on July 4th in 1970.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)