It didn’t take a fancy telescope at Lowell Observatory to see the local running stars on Saturday morning.
Ryan Stevens and Katie McGee, both longtime Flagstaffian distance stars, won the men’s and women’s titles at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Dave McKay Flagstaff Half Marathon on a warm morning on Mars Hill and Observatory Mesa.
Both are masters runners. McGee, 51, finished eighth overall and dominated the women’s race in 1:38.52, outdistancing second-place finisher Valerie Cross, 43, of Flagstaff (1:44:08). Leah Rosenfeld was third in 1:44:29.
McGee, a former elite, is well known around town. She’s a three-time Olympic Trials marathon qualifier and ran collegiately at Montana State. In previous Flagstaff Run Series races, McGee finished second at the Hopi Footprints 10K at Fort Tuthill Park in 46:16 and fifth at the July 4 Flagstaff Downtown Mile in 6:02.
Stevens, 41, is a past winner of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Half Marathon, and he showed that he’s just as strong as a masters runner. His winning time of 1:27:23 on a course with a big hill near the start and rolling trails and forest roads throughout was 6:40 per mile.
That was enough for Stevens to beat second place Marshall Lieder, 25, of Flagstaff, who ran 1:30:21, and Flag’s Will Drexler, 49, in 1:30:21.
The first Grand Masters title (added by race director Neil Weintraub for runners age 60+) was a showdown to the finish between Flagstaff rivals John Bogen, 66, and Marvin Toya, 67, Bogen won in 1:48:54, five seconds ahead of Toya. The top Grand Masters women was Flagstaff’s Shelby Reid in 2:13:18.
The accompanying 5K was won by Flagstaff’s Mark Loeffler (18:11) and Flagstaff’s Sammy Mullaney (21:21).
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