Masters shine in 15K; younger runners take 5K titles
at FWRC Labor Day Run

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A couple of Masters (40-older) runners, Ken Hall of Colleyville and Fiona Green of Keller, won their respective overall titles in the Fort Worth Runners Club's Labor Day 15K on a humid, warm Monday (Sept. 1) morning. But while the ``old folks'' dominated the 9.3-mile distance, the younger runners outdistanced their competitors in the 5K.

Joe Jacobs, 24, a Mizuno rep whose travels had him in Fort Worth, won the men's title in 16:35.7, and Caitlin Keen, a 16-year-old junior at Nolan High School, won the women's title in a personal-best 19:23.5. Hall, 44, won the men's 15K in 55:51.5, though it appeared to spectators that he had finished second. However, lead runner Joe Beisner didn't want to be counted in the results, officials said. Green, 43, passed Cora Turner, a 39-year-old Alvarado resident whom Green said she had never beaten, near the 3-mile mark and raced to victory in 1:02:27.3. Turner finished in 1:03:21.7 to finish second.

Jacobs, who said he orginally is from New Jersey but is based in Greensboro, N.C., said he isn't accustomed to the humidty he sweated through en route to his victory. Jacobs said he has been working for Mizuno about five months and has an occasional chance to run durinig his travels.

Hall said he was bothered by stomach cramps early in the race and they never went away. ``I'm not sure what it was. It might have been the sports drink at the water stops. I've never had that drink before.''

Mark Miller, 30, of Carrollton, who is training for the White Rock Marathon in December, finished second in 57:25.2.

Green said when she passed Turner, she was able to stay focused on her pace. ``I knew I had to because I didn't know how close she was,'' she said. She also believed her time was a PR, though she had run a 15K a few seconds faster two years ago. However, she said there were questions about that course's length, which might have been short.

Notes: More than 1,300 had registered for the 15K and 5K....The youngest runner in the 15K was 11-year-old Melody Rodriguez of Fort Worth. She finished in 1:46:08.3. Daisy Martinez, a 12-year-old from Fort Worth who has been running in the 22- and 21-minute range in 5Ks, also ran the 15K and finished in an impressive 1:16:39.5....Ian Rodger, 60, who had left hip replacement about 18 months ago, ran the 5K. Though he finished in 28:10.4, almost 10 minutes slower than he had been running before his hip began bothering him, said it was nice to join the crowd again. But he said after about a mile and a half, the hip started hurting like, well, bad....A kids 1K started the activities.