Runners find pace on a hot day

News Sports Reporter

Todd Snyder didn't need long to think of many words to describe his victory in Sunday's Dexter-Ann Arbor Run half-marathon.

"Hot, long and hard," said the Pioneer High School graduate, who finished in 1 hour, 7 minutes, 35 seconds. "We took it out pretty fast, so the rest of the race was just hanging in."

With temperatures topping 80 degrees and humidity that made conditions feel hotter, Snyder and Nick Cordes of Rochester Hills set a furious pace from the beginning of the race.

"It was the wrong day to try to go for the course record," said Cordes, who finished second in 1:09:19. "I haven't felt this bad in a race yet."

Conversely, Leigh Daniel, Cordes' girlfriend, took the race at a comfortable pace and was the women's overall winner with a time of 1:22:33.

"I wanted to run an even pace today," Daniel said. "I didn't have too big of goals."

Although no one broke the course's records - Scott Fry holds the men's record at 1:03:52, and Laurel Park holds the women's at 1:14:56 - to claim a $1,500 bonus, the event's announced 5,300 participants collectively set an attendance record for the race, which hadn't topped 5,000 before.

The 10K race also saw a close finish as Fenton's Kirk Walrath (33:38) was able to hold off Pontiac's Eric Green (33:51) despite struggling with the final uphill stretch.

"I knew the hill was coming but you're never really ready for something like that," said Walrath, who had run the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run's half-marathon but not the 10K before. Green led the first portion of the race but soon fell behind Walrath. As the two climbed the final half-mile uphill, Green said he made up ground on the leader.

"If it was a longer hill, I probably would have caught him," Green said. "I ran out of hill."

Green's fondness of the race's final stretch wasn't shared by the women's 10K winner, Elizabeth Ben-Ishai. The University of Michigan graduate student and former 1,500-, 3,000-meter and cross country runner at the University of Toronto described the race as "painful." Ben-Ishai said she hadn't had any expectation of winning.

"I figured I would just jump in and see how it goes," Ben Ishai said.

Belleville's Ryan Desgrange won the men's 5K with a time of 15:20, and Denisa Costescu of Wixom won the women's 5K with a time of 17:28.

Brett DeGroff can be reached at bdegroff@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6812.