By JONATHAN SNYDER
An early fog and humid weather was the backdrop for the golden anniversary of the Parlor City Trot Saturday.
The Parlor City Trot takes runners down River Road, through Ouabache State Park and back again toward downtown. There are 5K and 10K options, as well as the traditional half-marathon offered for runners of all ages.
The cool morning air was quickly replaced with humidity, which slowed the pace down according to runner Derek Miller of Fort Wayne. Miller won the half-marathon race this year, with a time of 1 hour, 10 minutes and five seconds. Noah Steffen of Bluffton was the fastest Wells County half-marathon runner, finishing1:16:28. The recorded fastest time set by Fernando Cabada at one hour and six minutes stands tall.
The top 27 finishers in the half-marathon ran under eight minutes per every mile. Men and women in their 60’s and 70’s also competed in the half-marathon, with Tom Felts of Fort Wayne, at 70 years old, running under eight minutes and 30 seconds per mile. Mariah Jordan, the fastest female in the half-marathon field, finished 1:26:15.
Miller, who is currently training for a full marathon later this year, stated that this race was a good way to measure his performance levels for the full marathon. Miller stated that very few changes in elevation, along with the state park loop, make the course very fast and enjoyable to run.
“It was fun running into state park just because there’s the campers and other people that are in there, so some of those people are cheering you on,” Miller said. “Eventually you loop back and pass the other runners. That’s always fun, just because you get to say ‘good job’ to each other So it’s kind of a group effort (where) we’re all trying to help each other out.”
After the races were finished, the camaraderie did not stop, with runners from different cities chatting about the race and life. Whenever a runner was winded after finishing, people were ready to hand water to them and give a pat on the back, recognizing their efforts.
Joshua Peppers of Bluffton, who ran the race for the third time and finished 10th overall, loved the familiarity of the course. Peppers is also training for the Chicago Marathon in October and he runs the Rivergreenway as training, running 40 to 50 miles every week to prepare.
“I train on this Greenway, and Ouabache State Park quite a bit,” Peppers said. “So it’s really nice to race on a course that I’m very familiar with and comfortable running on. Towards the back of the state park, on the cave trail, there’s a winding section that comes to an end there on the east side. It’s just really pretty, really serene and peaceful. That’s my favorite part of the course.”
Parks Department Sports Coordinator Laurie Baumgartner stated that this year’s edition of the Trot brought in more than double the amount of people that ran last year. Baumgartner stated that around 290 people partication.
Additionally, for the first time the trot was the host site for the Roadrunner Club of America Half-Marathon State Championship. Medals were awarded for the top 5K finishers. Other top runners in the 10K got a mug for their efforts, and the top finishers in the half-marathon shared from a $5,000 total purse.
“What’s neat about this race, especially for our half marathon event, is over 50% of the runners are from outside of Wells County,” Baumgartner said. “So we get a lot of local runners, but we also get a ton of people from as far away as Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Kentucky, we’ve got people from all over coming.”
The top five half-marathon finishers were:
1st: Derek Miller, Fort Wayne, 1:10:05
2nd: Andrew Taylor, Lafayette, Indiana, 1:13:46.5
3rd: Justin Kowalski, South Bend, Indiana, 1:13:52.9
4th: Noah Steffer, Bluffton, 1:16:28
5th: Jeff Zenger, Fort Wayne, 1:20:56
The top five 10K finishers were:
1st: Riley Worl, Rochester, Indiana, 33:21.4
2nd: Scott Saucedo, Westfield, Indiana: 37:52
3rd: Curtin Hines, Huntington, Indiana, 40:08.6
4th: Kody Ahrens, Angola, Indiana: 43:16.7
5th: Matthew Ackerman, Huntington, 43:32.1
The top five 5K finishers were:
1st: Ethan Fudge, Fort Wayne: 20:27.7
2nd: Brian Hufford, Rossville, Indiana, 25:41.7
3rd: Lana Beregszazi, Fort Wayne, 28:12.7
4th: Ed Lill, Fort Wayne, 28:32.6
5th: Brenner Newsom, Bluffton, 28:38.8
jonathan@news-banner.com
