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BROOKSVILLE - It almost seemed like the Flatlanders Challenge had never left. Brooksville's signature 10K race came home Saturday after three years at Spring Lake, and the 25th running drew raves on and off the downtown course.
Event organizers had hoped for 250-300 runners between the 10K and 2-mile fun run. Instead, 320 participated and they ran out of T-shirts.
On the roads, Tampa's Muchapiwa Mazano set the event record in 33 minutes, 25 seconds, .05 ahead of Lee Stephens of Land O'Lakes. Mazano topped the 2001 mark of 33:40 by Mike Greiwe.
"Typically he kind of coasts the first mile, then the second mile is when he throws in a surge and tries to break everybody ... and that's what he did," Stephens said.
In the women's 10K, Clearwater's Judy Maguire won in 38:40. Kristy Fuller of Lutz was second in 39:29. Two high school runners won the 2-mile race, Ben Martucci (Hernando) in 11:13 and Danielle Coyle (River Ridge) in 12:19.
The Flatlanders returned downtown after Brooksville City Council members and the event's organizers, the Red Mule Runners Club, agreed the race would be a good chance to show off a spruced-up downtown area and re-energize a race that had been held in a country setting for three years. "All the runners said they were glad to be back here," race director Chuck Boldt said.
- Correspondent Bob Cheesman contributed to this report.