CAR Series - Greater Clarksburg 10K (iPO Event Id#: 2988)
Story and photos by Julie Black
[Details]
[Coverage]
Results:
[Overall 1-300]
[301-625]
[Women By Class]
[Men By Class]
Pictures:
[Set 1]
[Set 2]
[Set 3]
[Set 4]
[Set 5]
[Set 6]
[Set 7]
[Set 8]
[Set 9]
[Set 10]
[Set 11]
Check out Dave McKain's 250-plus additonal photos!
Past event Coverage:
[1998 Coverage]
[1999 Coverage]
[2000 Coverage]
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Founded in the fall of 1996, The Greater Clarksburg 10K has been promoting it's motto of good health and overall wellness over the past 5 years with the help of it's race director Carl Hatfield and it's top organizer, Larry Mazza.
Hard to miss in his purple and white "Race Director" ball cap and
winning smile, Hatfield is no stranger to participating in large
events. He won the very first Pittsburgh Great Race, and qualified
for four Olympic Trials, among other accomplishments. For the 2001
10K, Hatfield and Mazza had the honors of introducing Clarksburg to
Billy Mills. This celebrity runner is a 1964 gold medallist in
the 10,000-meter run in the Tokyo Olympics.
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Hundreds and hundreds of racers lined up at the start. As soon as the ESPN and the WBOY-TV 12 cameras were ready, the balloons were released and the racers took off! The first group of runners to be seen was the Kenyan men, gaining on the motorcycles just ahead of them. The crowds lined the finish stretch on Main Street, and cheers could be heard as four men running at a blistering mile pace of 4:35 peaked the last short hill.
Thirty three year old James Koshei, his competition 10 years younger
in Evans Rutto, and high stepping 20 year old Gilbert Koech, all of
Kenya. They battled to the line in one of the closest finishes
Clarksburg has seen since 1999! Koshei poured on the
extra juice to pull a mere second ahead of his countrymen and finish
1st overall with a time of 28:30. Rutto(28:31), and
Koech(28:31), were right on his heels with Rutto stretching across the
line for 2nd. The first 17 men to finish in the 10K were from Kenya,
many having extremely close times at the line providing a lot of
excitement!
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The first runner from the United States was John Sence(30:16)
of Cincinnati, Ohio, who finished 18th overall. The first West
Virginia runner to cross the line was Dave McCollam of
Charleston who finished 25th overall with a time of 31:54.
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Timing services for the Clarksburg 10K were provided by The Runner's High. An organization of road race management experts and computer timing services throughout Western PA, and it's surrounding areas since 1980. S. Mark Courtney and his crew now provide ChampionChip technology as well. For more information please visit their web site at RunHigh.com or call (724) 458-4435.
