Michigan man wins division in first year

It had been 11 years since an American man won the masters division of the Crim Festival of Races 10-Mile Run before Chicago's Chris Toepfer put an end to that last summer.

On Saturday, Paul Aufdemberge made it two in a row for the Americans by becoming the first Michigan man in 18 years to win the title for 40-and-over runners. The Redford resident ran the course in 52:51 to finish 25th overall.

He dominated the masters division, finishing 5:32 ahead of runner-up David Watkins, 44, of Birmingham.

There were no foreign elite masters runners competing in the men's field for the second consecutive year.

Aufdemberge easily topped Toepfer's winning time of 56:48 a year ago. That 2004 clocking was the slowest winning masters time in race history.

He is the first Michigan runner to win the masters since Ann Arbor's Wally Herrala in 1987.

"It was one of my slower races," Aufdemberge said. "I'd like to blame it on the weather, but I don't think that's it completely. It's a little humid and I ran a little slower than I expected. I thought a good day would be under 52 minutes and I was under 53."

Aufdemberge, who is manager of Total Runner in Southfield, just became eligible for the masters event after turning 40 last December.

He said he wasn't sure he'd won.

"I wasn't thinking about the masters," he said. "I was just trying to run hard. I didn't know who else was in the masters."