CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The younger generation took charge on Saturday morning in the 13th annual 65 Roses 5K road race.
A pair of 18-year-old college freshmen were the overall winners as Paul Schupp and Amy Carpenter claimed those titles with times of 16:34 and 19:18, respectively.
The 3.1-mile race started and finished on the campus of Lee University. It was a mostly-flat course that included a long stretch down Ocoee Street past some of the most beautiful older homes in Cleveland.
It was a crystal-clear morning for this chilly final Saturday in March and 435 runners completed the distance in a race that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Counting entry fees, individual contributions and funds raised through a number of teams, more than $75,000 was raised this time around.
Schupp is a freshman at Dalton State and the roommate of Paul Patterson, who starred at Bradley before going to Dalton State. He lives in Kennesaw, Ga., and has a 5K PR of 15:40, but he was nowhere near that in this race.
While Schupp was the overall winner, Geno Phillips was the runner-up in 16:41. Dean Thompson was third in 16:54 while Tim Ensign and Ryan Heming completed the top five with times of 17:48 and 17:53, respectively.
Carpenter was ninth overall with her first-place time for females while Jennifer Curtis was 20th overall in second among the ladies with a 20:17.
Ashley Patrick was the third female and 39th overall in 21:39 while Kaylin Deel and Alexis Hewitt were 50th and 53rd overall with times of 22:27 and 22:41, respectively.
“I took off sort of conservative, but I felt good from the start,” said Schupp, who will celebrate his 19th birthday on May 5.
“We were flip-flopping back and forth, but I started pulling away in the last mile. It wasn’t a bad effort for me today,” the marketing major added.
Saturday’s race was at least the second time this year where Phillips had to settle for the runner-up spot. Just a month ago, he got outkicked in the final 50 yards at the Scenic City Half-Marathon.
“I’m trying to fight this thing called age and it’s a tough fight,” said the 43-year-old Red Bank Middle School social studies teacher and coach later.
“Today was about what I’ve been doing in 5K races recently, but I would have liked to have broken 16:30. Paul and I went back and forth for the first two miles as we were trying to break each other, but he finally pulled away in the last mile and I couldn’t catch him.
“He picked up the pace because I didn’t slow down, but I’m trying to get ready for the Chickamauga Chase and that’s my next big race,” he added.
While Schupp and Phillips had a real battle for the overall spot, nobody had a better seat from which to watch than Thompson, who was within striking distance the entire time but unable to get any closer.
“It seems like I’ve finished about 12 seconds behind Geno for about 12 straight races now. It hurt as these shorter races kill me, but it surely does feel good to run hard. They pulled away from me in the last mile, but it was a lot of fun watching them go back and forth,” Thomson smiled.
Carpenter is a freshman at Lee University who calls Indianapolis home. No doubt she could have run faster, but she started too far back in the pack and spent more time passing folks than anything else.
“I think I started out too slow, but I started too far back. I was hoping to break 19 minutes, but I had to pass an awful lot of people. I could have given a little more, but it was fun and absolutely perfect running weather,” she explained.
Bill Estes has been the race director for all 13 of these races. He has an awesome group of volunteers who make everything unfold like clockwork. Saturday was no exception.
“This has become a really big community event and we had a record number of pre-registered runners for today’s race,” he said after the awards had been presented inside a warm gymnasium.
“We try to add something new every year and our decision to move the awards ceremony inside was a good one. I’m sure that we raised more than $75,000 today, but our biggest fund raiser in the walk where we have more than 20 teams today. They raised a lot of money,” he added.
Matt Jenkins and Jessica Marlier were the defending overall winners for this race, but neither were present on Saturday to defend their titles.
Saturday's race was the second on the Chattanooga Track Club's schedule for 2015. The next one will be the legendary Chickamauga Chase on April 18. Events include a 15K main event, a 5K and an 8-mile trail run.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)