Sunday, February 14, 1999 -- Kanawha City
Valentines Day Race

[Coverage/Recap w/Pics] [Results] [Pics Set 1] [Pics Set 2]

Tiana Sturgeon enjoys the final stretch of the afternoon's 5 miles

The second race in the three race KVRR Winter Series was held at 2:00pm, the 14th of February (a.k.a, Valentines Day). While the early weekend weather brought some snowfall across the state, Sunday was nothing short of a gorgeous, sunny day. While the temperatures struggled to make it into the 40s, the warm sunshine brought plenty of smiles and spring-like attire.

The race consisted of a flat, straight, 5-mile, out-and-back course that ran parallel to the Kanawha River. Once Pat Board gave the go ahead for the start of the race, the gun sounded and it didn't take long for the leaders to move out to the front. With the absence of Kevin Williams, the winner of the first race in the series, it quickly became a race between Kevin Batey and Michael Guinn. The previous race had Batey taking second, just seven seconds ahead of Guinn who finished third.

Aaron Kaylor goes shirtless while the snow still lingers

As this day's race progressed, Guinn seemed to be constantly pushing the pace out front. Batey would occasionally drop back a bit only to surge back again and close the gap. However, as they reached the long, final stretch, Guinn was finally able to hold an edge on the chasing Batey and came across the line first with a time of 26:32. Batey hit the tape at the 26:38 mark, just six seconds back and good enough to maintain a one second edge in the Winter Series standings. This leaves the door wide open for a showdown at the series finale on March 14th.

A minute back of the leaders, and running most of the race alone in third place overall, was Larry Taylor with a time of 27:37.

Mark Perry has the right attitude for a beautiful Valentines Day

The top female runner for the day was Kathy Lencio, who finished 9th overall in a time of 31:09. Her closest competition came from Jessica Taylor (31:57, 12th overall) and Katherine Garrell (33:09, 15th overall).

There were many more great victories taken home by all the participants. Proof of this came from all the happy faces that crossed the finish line knowing that they had taken full advantage of a beautiful day in the middle of February. We can only hope for more great weather for race number three, the Spring Fling 10K on March 14th. See you there!