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DAVE THEALLThis year's Wingding champs ran until the competition forgot about them - or until they lost track of the competition.
CLEARWATER - Seminole High senior Ken Magee bided his time through a 4:54 first mile in the Wingding 5K before making a bold move to the front of a lead pack of five. He went on to win in 15 minutes, 44 seconds, a personal record for a 3.1-mile race.
Magee, this fall's Pinellas County Athletic Conference cross country winner, broke away from the front-runners, including runner-up Keith Sawayda of Clearwater, who set a new masters record of 15:59. The previous record was 16:09, set last year by Alvaro Palacios of Salt Lake City.
Third place was won by John Emerson of Brooksville, followed by Florida State University's Nate Davis of Largo and Danny Ayers of New Port Richey.
"When I take the lead, I like to open up a little distance between myself and the field so they can't think much about me," said Magee, explaining that his surge at the mile was intended to be authoritative, not timid.
"My goal coming into the race was just the top three, so I didn't have a lot of pressure on myself," he said. "I think that helped me this morning; I was just running for the fun of it."
Sarasota's Dave O'Meara, 41, finished sixth (16:52) and captured the masters division award because Sawayda had already won a top-three award. David Putnam, 45, of Belleair Bluffs, took second in that division and ninth overall with 17:23.
True to form for the holiday extravaganza, the women's winner comes all the way from the Netherlands.
However, Helen Hofstede is a student and athlete at FSU, so she just traveled here from Tallahassee.
Hofstede chose to run "with the boys" at a comfortable pace for the first mile, going through in 5:27. She went on to win in 17:41.
"I wasn't sure if I was the first woman," said Hofstede, who ran third for the Seminoles this fall, "but I felt good at that point and decided to keep that pace unless someone came up on me."
Although Hofstede was never challenged, she used some of her 1,500-meter track speed to pick up the pace on Druid Street in the closing mile to ensure a reasonably fast time.
Christy Phillips, 41, a former Turkey Trot and Hops Marathon winner, came on strong to secure second (18:13), followed by Clearwater's Judy Maguire, 45. They were followed by Laura Magee, Ken's sister, Laure Blume, last year's winner, and Lisa Valentine, who advanced to the masters winner's circle since Phillips and Maguire earned top-three awards.
A field of 7,038 runners, joggers and walkers set a record for Wingding, surpassing the 5,944 participants in 1999. The figures represent those registered, not finishers, since only the top 100 men and women in the 5K and 10K are recorded.