By David Yon
Two young runners came home from “distant lands” to win the 2003 Tallahassee Women’s Classic 5K (formally, the Women’s Distance Festival). Justin Dickieson is running for Northwest-Shoals Community College in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but he took a break to come home and win the men’s race in a time of 17:38.16. Tim Unger represented the geriatric set and grabbed second place and the master’s title with a time of 17:42.98.
On the women’s side Kara Newell ran the fastest women’s time since 1999 to win in 18:51.21. Kara left us for a year to attend school in Boston, but has returned to run for FSU clearly demonstrating that program is on the rise. Mari Leitner, an FSU teammate, ran 19:38.52 to grab second. Julie Clark won the women’s master’s race with a 21:09.91
Eight year old Jeffery Clark ran 7:13 to win the 1 mile race, while Jamie Wright finished second in 7:48. Breanna Brunner, age 7, sprinted past her dad Wes to win the girls competition with a time of 8:50. Emily Dempsey was second in 9:14.
Sue Kelly did a great job of keeping this race one of the best organized in town. Once again the women started 10 minutes ahead of the men. One hundred sixty four runners finished the 5K and 14 finished the 1 mile. The course runs through Indianhead Acres and tests the runners’ mettle with a difficult second mile.