Photo by Ron Bush Dianna Leun, Battlefield marathon What the San Francisco Giants couldn't continue this year, Jason Altman did.
The Knoxville resident became the first four-time winner of the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon on Saturday, adding the 2016 victory to the ones he pulled off following the Giants' World Series triumphs in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
"When they got beat in the playoffs this year, I wondered if that was bad news for me," Altman said with a laugh, having noted the coincidental connection after his last Battlefield Marathon win.
He couldn't compete in the race last year because he was still undergoing physical therapy after a knee scope in September following a torn meniscus.
The race director for the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon and husband of the executive director of the Knoxville Track Club - wife Kristy's grandparents live in Ooltewah - finished the 26.2-mile course that loops twice through the military park in 2 hours, 42 minutes, 20 seconds. Dianna Leun of Signal Mountain surprised herself with the women's win in 3:15:08.
"That's my slowest time of the four. Like Toby Keith says, I'm not as fast as I once was, and you never know who's going to show up," said Altman, now 37. "And my friends at the Chattanooga Track Club put the pressure on me. They gave me bib number 1."
He finished No. 1 by six minutes over 44-year-old Eddie Posey of Easley, S.C., who saw the battlefield course for the first time Saturday morning - in his fourth marathon since taking up running at age 40.
"It was my midlife crisis. I didn't have the money for the expensive stuff," said Posey, a computer tech who brought his wife and daughter to Chattanooga for his first Chickamauga race.
"Some buddies invited me to run this one. It's a great course," he said.
The male masters winner Saturday, he also was the overall runner-up in the Virginia Creeper marathon in April 2015. He had no illusions of a higher finish Saturday as Altman took the lead from the start.
"I was just trying to break 2:50," said Posey, who succeeded in 2:48:23. "I just tried to maintain a steady pace. I was running against myself. It didn't matter where I finished."
And Leun, also 44, was just trying to break 3:20. Her best time in her four previous marathons was 3:21 in 2014 when she was the female masters winner at the battlefield.
"Never - no, no, no - never in my wildest dreams did I think I would win," said Erlanger's director of performance improvement at the health centers. "If I just took a minute off, it would make me happy."
Her six-minute improvement included hustling past an approaching train with just under four miles remaining, and Leun gave her pacer, 13th-place Dean Thompson, great credit for her race.
"Dean was amazing," she said.
"People were telling me I was the first woman, but I just kept thinking there's a lot of race to go. At about mile 20, at the out-and-back area, I knew I had about two minutes on the next one, and I finally started thinking I might win."
Leun was 15th overall, and Deborah Dawson was 27th as the next female and masters winner.
Peter Volgyesi of Nashville, Tripp McCallie of Ooltewah and Christopher Kamrath of Somerset, Wis., were third through fifth in 2:58:48, 2:59:21 and 3:09:10. The marathon had 350 finishers.
Chattanooga's Adan Rodriguez won the 896-finisher half marathon in 1:15:26 with Alan Outlaw, Victor Karm, Kevin Huwe and Jack Findley bunched from 1:16:22 to 1:16:57. Angela Jenny of York, S.C., was the women's winner and 29th overall in 1:35:59.
Sam Linhoss and Tess Cochran were the 5k winners in 18:06 and 19:35 (sixth overall).
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.