Lizzie Royer, left, and Paul Stuart were the overall winners at Saturday’s Chickamauga Chase.
photo by M. A. Locke
Paul Stuart and Lizzie Royer had never run an official 15K race, but they liked the experience they had on Saturday morning at the 48th running of the Chickamauga Chase.
Both were overall winners with Stuart covering the scenic, rolling 9.3-mile course in 49 minutes, 46 seconds as he averaged 5:21 per mile for the distance.
Royer was the overall winner among the women as she averaged 6:43 per mile while crossing the finish line by Wilder Tower in 1:02:29.
And neither of them was seriously challenged as Stuart’s margin of victory over Chad Dean was 3:27 while Royer’s difference over second-place Rachel Mason was 5:56.
While Dean was second in 53:13, Kevin Huwe was third in 56:35 while Hugh Enicks and Josh Erhard followed in 56:55 and 58:52, respectively.
Those five fellows were the only runners among the 281 finishers in the longer race to break and hour while Stuart and Dean were the only two to average better than six-minute miles as Dean had an average of 5:43.
Royer’s time was 10th overall while Mason’s time of 1:08:25 was 22nd. Jennifer Huwe was third among the ladies and 25th overall in 1:09:08 while Lisa Logan and Laura Wagner followed in 26th and 29th places with times of 1:09:31 and 1:10:03, respectively.
Lucas Stocks was the overall winner in the 5K with a time of 18:05 while Kelly McCarthy was 11th overall and the first female in 21:11.
And in the eight-mile trail run that was run on a much drier course this year than last, Simon Gloger was the overall winner in 52:44 while Jennifer Stocks was the first lady and fourth overall in 55:58.
Runners never know what kind of weather they will get at the Park this time of year, but Saturday’s conditions couldn’t have been more ideal. It was cool and the start and partially-overcast skies yielded to a lot of blue as the temperatures slowly rose later in the morning.
Stuart is a 22-year-old senior at UTC who is majoring in accounting. His track days are finished, but he still has one cross country season. The slender fellow from Nashville has done quite a bit of training on these roads, but had never been in an official race.
As it turns out, he had the road to himself…literally.
“I’ve never run this race before, but this is one of the best places in this area to run and I felt good as I had a great day,” he said shortly after finishing the race.
“I just wanted to break 50 minutes and I was able to do that, but it was hard pushing myself on some of those hills running by myself. I hope to have some teammates out here next year.
“I was ready to be finished as we went up that series of hills between seven and eight, but I just tried to keep my eye on the bike and not think about how bad I was hurting,” he added.
Royer is a petite 23-year-old from York, Pennsylvania who has been living in Dalton as she trains for a job with Shaw Industries. She’ll be moving to Baltimore in the near future, so she was just happy to be able to run a good race in the local community before moving on.
“This was my first time here and it was great. It was really a pretty run and even though I was running fast, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy it. This was my first 15K race and I felt prepared at the start as I gave it my all. I was hoping to be close to an hour, so I wasn’t far off.
“There were a few nice hills on the course, but at least they weren’t long,” she added with a smile.
Dean is a 35-year-old residential general contractor who has been away from the road racing scene for a few years, but he’s back at it and looking for good things in the future.
“I would have liked to have some company up front, but it seemed like I was running by myself the whole way. Those last four miles were tough, but all in all, I felt good.
“I was hoping to run a little faster as I was shooting for a 51, but it’s hard to push yourself when you’re by yourself. I won the 5K here five or six years ago, so it’s nice to be back. I’m working toward my first marathon this fall and may come back and do Chickamauga,” he added.
Dean finished fifth overall with a time of 1:16:42 two weeks ago at the Knoxville Half-Marathon, so he’s on track for a fast race in the coming months.
Lucas Stocks has a personal best of 17:22 for 5K, but he’s been sick in recent days and just wanted to do as well as possible. The 25-year-old sales associate at Fast Break accomplished his goal without much difficulty.
“I’ve been sick, so my main goal was simply to win as I didn’t care much about my time. But that was the hardest 18-minute 5K I’ve ever run,” he laughed.
McCarthy is a 26-year-old news reporter for Channel 3 who grew up in New York and ran for Syracuse. She was the runner-up in the 15K last year, but had been slowed in recent weeks by a knee injury.
“I really had a good run today. I’m just coming off a knee injury, so I haven’t been running as much as I normally do, but I was hoping to be around 20 minutes today,” she explained.
Saturday’s races had 814 total participants with 281 in the 15K, 402 in the 5K and another 131 in the trail run.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)