Jerry and Julie Reddy filling the cups with water and Gatorade. By Pete Puckett
Sunday’s White Rock Marathon was wet and cold. Now any marathoner will tell you, that’s not the worst conditions for a run — hot with a headwind is the worst. A little rain might be slightly uncomfortable, but 41 degrees is the ideal marathon temp. For runners. Not so much for the spectators and volunteers — for them it would have been miserable if they’d stopped to think about it. I haven’t really heard any complaints though. Take, for example, Boy Scout troops 707 and 719 and Scouter Pack 862 who set up their water stop at Williamson and Sperry in Lakewood at 5:30 Sunday morning. They sent us an email this afternoon letting us know how much they enjoyed handing water to the runners at the 10-mile mark.
“Around 9 a.m. the participants began to appear from around the corner. The scouts were prepared, wrote Scout dad Pete Puckett. “Soon we were all running back and forth handing drinks to thirsty runners as they raced by on there way to complete the course another 16 miles down the road. Some stopped or slowed for the handoff but most just kept running and with a splash grabbed a cup from our hands without missing a beat.”
The Scouts’ station was especially impressive because they set up flags, part of the Lake Highlands American Flag project (limited, due to rain, but a sight nonetheless).
As for those who simply ran the race — haha — some highlights:
2011 was the largest registrant field in Dallas White Rock Marathon history.
Men’s half marathon winner Scott McPherson besting the field by nearly two minutes in a final tune up before his competition at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Female half marathon winner Sonya Correa’s first race victory.
Men’s marathon winner John Itati held off 2010 DWRM champion James Kirwa to grab top honors, but was bested by the 16-person relay team competing in the High School Relay Challenge. Relay anchor V. Martinez of Arlington surged ahead in the last 200m of the race to pass Itati and finish approximately four seconds ahead of the elite Kenyan runner. The HS Relay Challenge is intended to be a pace team to the elite runners. The friendly competition recognizes some of the area’s top high school runners and provides them an opportunity to meet and compete with world-class athletes.
Female marathon winner Natalya Sergeyeva ran a personal record of 2:35:18 in the cold, damp conditions and bested the remainder of the field by five minutes.
Here’s one photo of the finish that I captured on my phone); here is a public Facebook link to a bunch more.
