For the third consecutive year, Clearwater's Keith Sawayda ran away with the men's title in the five-race Sunsets at Pier 60 Series on Clearwater Beach. He won the last four 5Ks after finishing third in the opener in June.
The final race, held Friday night, was the most challenging for Sawayda and the rest of the relatively small field of 75. It was high tide with gulleys, holes and narrow places to run.
Sawayda, 41, ran shoulder-to-shoulder with Karim Abdulbary of Largo for the first mile before gradually pulling away for a clear-cut victory in 17 minutes, 10 seconds. Abdulbary, 18, followed in 18:09, then it was Howard Finegold, 33, of Clearwater, 18:25.
The winning time, expectedly, was considerably slower than Sawayda's 16:37 victory in Race 4. That was his best performance in the past three years in the series.
The prize for winning is a stay at the Hilton Hotel on Clearwater Beach.
"I didn't push as hard as I did in previous races because of the conditions," said Sawayda, a 1985 Notre Dame graduate with a degree in electrical engineering. "I just wanted to have a good, solid effort."
He didn't run at Notre Dame, but he was a high school cross-country athlete in Warren, Ohio.
Sawayda said he likes the beach series because he uses it for speed workouts to help prepare for fall and winter road races, which he prefers. Also, the series of the West Florida Y Runners Club serves as a family outing where his sons, ages 9 and 7, usually run the preliminary 1-mile event.
Sawayda will compete in a Labor Day weekend 5K, followed by a Times Turkey Trot race - 5K, 10K or both. Last year, he blazed through the 5K in 15:59, good for second behind Seminole' s Ken Magee (15:44). Then for Sawayda, it's on to longer races in 2005, namely the Naples Half-Marathon in January and Gasparilla in February.
"I enjoy the competition," Sawayda said, "but my main goal is just to stay healthy. I find running the most efficient way to do that."
Sawayda is the information security officer for Boar's Head Provisions in Safety Harbor.
Lisa Feldt of Largo eked out a six-second win over Palm Harbor's Kit Van Allan in the women's beach race to capture the series' title.
In the mixed field Friday, Feldt finished fifth overall. She had won the third race, then lost to Van Allan in No. 4 by 10 seconds.
"My strategy was to hang back a little just behind her (Van Allan) and then make my move coming back from the turnaround," Feldt said. "When I did, at about Mile 2, I chose to move to the high side of the beach and apparently she didn't see me go by because she didn't go with me."
However, after opening a sizable lead, Feldt nearly was run down by fast-finishing Van Allan. Kaley Matthews, 17, of St. Petersburg, took third in 21:23.
BEACH NOTES: Hudson's Elona Olmstead, 42, placed third in the series behind Van Allan by clean-sweeping her age division.
Third for the men was Clearwater's Jon Feldman, 54, who won all five events in his bracket.
Karen Alexeev, 51, of Gulfport, not only tied for first in the barefoot division with Seminole's Cindy Horrocks 24:26, but surpassed the winning time among women 45-49. Feldt has received a complimentary entry into the Oct. 2 Race For The Cure 5K in downtown St. Petersburg. There's a registration form in the current issue of RacePlace and online at www.komensuncoast.com
SATURDAY: The postponed American Running Center 5K will be at 8 a.m. on Honeymoon Island in Dunedin.
The course is a cross-country layout but not on the beach. The on-site fee is $20.
A 1-mile event is scheduled for 8:45 on the roads and will include baby joggers. The fee is $10.
More than 200 runners are expected. For information, call 736-8232 (days).
OLYMPIC RACE-WALK: Gainesville's Teresa Vaill, a frequent area competitor during the 1990s, finished 43rd among 57 competitors in the women's 20K (12.4 miles) on Monday.
The winner was Athanasia Tsourmeleka of Greece.
OLYMPIC SUNDAY: Track & Field News predicts world record-holder (2:04:55) Paul Tergat of Kenya will win the marathon and be followed by Morocco's Jaouad Gharib and Italy's Stefano Baldini. Tergat established the mark Sept. 29, 2003, on a flat course in Berlin under favorable weather conditions.
Will Tergat be better able to handle the hills and heat in Greece, or will he falter? Under adverse conditions, women's world record-holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain was a late dropout Saturday. Don't expect an American marathoner to medal, as Deena Kastor did with the bronze in the women's 26.2-mile race. Kastor, owner of the U.S. record (2:21:16), said the heat and hills kept her from warming up for the event or surging in the race at any point.
She just patiently set an even pace, gradually picked off people until she reached third place and ran out of room. Kastor will run the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 before 2-million spectators.
There's another marathon of interest. It's the Athens Marathon, which will take the same historic course as this year's Olympics event and finish in Olympic Stadium. History buffs can learn more by going to www.athensmarathon.com or calling Apostolos Greek Tours, 303 755-2888.
The last American man to capture an Olympic marathon medal was Frank Shorter, silver in 1976 in Montreal. It was four years after he took gold (2:12:20) in Munich, Germany. PIKES PEAK MARATHON: The self-described "America's Ultimate Challenge" attracted two Pinellas veterans of the 7,815-feet ascent to 14,110 feet Sunday at Pikes Peak National Forest in Colorado.
Richard Rahall, 52, of Tierra Verde, completed his fourth marathon there in 7 hours, 33 minutes and 47 seconds. Seminole's Thad Crisco, 45, a St. Petersburg police officer, finished his seventh in 7:42:24, as he improved over his previous best by 1 hour, 16 minutes.
The winning time was 4:00:04.
The mountain climb, first run in 1956, has an average elevation grade of 11 degrees. When the runners reach the peak, they have another 13.1 miles descent. The field consisted of 609 men and 192 women.
