Hugh Enicks got up Saturday and went for a morning sprint. At least the 10K he ran and won in the 50-and-over division in the BlueCross BlueShield Riverbend Run was a sprint compared to the 26-plus miles he’ll be running next month in Sacremento, Calif.
The 51-year-old Enicks, who coaches track and cross country and is ROTC instructor at Red Bank High School, ran the downtown course in 36:26.63 as the male grand masters champion and seventh overall finisher.
The overall winner was University of Tennessee at Chattanooga runner Chris Berry with a time of 31:48.22, almost two minutes faster than runner-up Bryson Harper from Bryan College. The female winner was former UTC runner Lanni Marchant in 37:22.87.
Cohutta’s Dean Thompson and East Ridge’s Carrie Jewett were the 10k masters winnners. Thompson was fifth overall, behind Jack McAfee and Spencer Whittier. Betsy Darken was the women’s grand masters winner.
Enicks, who has qualified to run the marathon course in the World Masters track and field championships in a few weeks, said his first Riverbend run was the last year it was exclusively a 5K. He has ran in all of its 10Ks.