10 | July | 2013 | McClelland Miscellanea

The runners slosh off in the Harrison 5K. Tim Even, in the blue shorts, gets a fast start.

(Harrison ME) Under downpour conditions, Tim Even won the 11th Annual Harrison Rec Department’s 5K on Wednesday night for the second straight year.

Halee Phelps (junior at Westbrook High School) paced the women with a seven second victory over Anna Lastra (sophomore at Fryeburg Academy).

Halee Phelps

Tim Even

The rainy conditions were a big factor. If you weren’t carrying an umbrella, or sitting in your vehicle, you were a runner.

It was actually quite dark for the 7PM start but those running this well-managed event (Tammy Anderson and Julie Crawford-Murphy) were more than capable of handling the safety issues that driving rain, darkness, and a flow of traffic might cause.

Tim Even, by way of Fryeburg Academy and Southern Maine, started fast and never trailed, although last year’s 73-second margin of victory was reduced to 13 seconds by Eric Darling.

Tim’s winning time was 17:19, which was over thirty seconds slower than last year. Blame the rain? Maybe. I saw Tim finish 17th in the big Bridgton 4th race a week ago after he took second in 2012. I’m guessing that there’s some sort of injury in the mix.

Eric Darling

Anna Lastra

Eric Darling, who won the race in 2011, finished ninth last year on a warm evening. The native of Shelborne VT shaved over three minutes off of his time in 2012 to get second place this year.

Josh Grenier and Brett Albright finished 3rd and 4th. Mark MacDougall (Lake Region High School) and Arno Bommer (from Houston) were separated by two seconds for 5th.

Tim Cushing (Bridgton) ended up 7th followed by Patrick Ridlon (he was 12th in 2012) and 18-year-od Michael Mayles. Nathan Cushing rounded out the top ten males.

Halee Phelps is 16-years-old and finished 16th overall to capture the female title. Close behind Halee was Anna Lastra a 15-year-old from Fryeburg Academy.

Erin Seavey of Newburgh (ME) was the third woman finisher.