Jenny DeLongAfter breaking the tibia and tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right leg last January, former Bryan College star runner and coach Bryson Harper couldn't run for eight months.
He made the last night of 2016 a triumphant competition comeback.
Harper, 28, won the four-mile Karen Lawrence Run in 26 minutes, 17 seconds from the downtown Sportsbarn in Chattanooga.
Eric Loffland, 42, was second and the masters winner in 27:19 in the annual New Year's Eve race, with 16-year-old Matthew Newsom of Rock Spring, Billy Jolley of Thompsons Station, Tenn., and James DeLong of Apison third through fifth in 30:40, 31:08 and 32:49.
DeLong's wife, Jenny, was the women's winner and 10th overall in 33:58. Jodi Davis, 51, of Chattanooga was the second female and the masters winner in 37:09, 30 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Erin Brown.
The DeLongs both are 33 and nurses who came to the area in 2002 to attend Southern Adventist University. James is one of the coaches in FX Multisport Coaching, and he's directing his wife as she focuses on running this winter as opposed to her usual triathlons. She ran the Four Bridges Half Marathon and most recently the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in Asheville, N.C., where they were visiting family.
"That's a good time for her, with the hills," he said of Saturday's race.
Soon into it, Jenny was running unchallenged for women's honors, "but I tried not to let that slow me down," she said.
Loffland is mostly a trail runner and finished fourth in the recent Lookout Mountain 50-miler. This was his first time in the Karen Lawrence Run. Having moved to Chattanooga three and a half years ago, he was told about the race by a friend who does the timing.
He felt good about his time with another race planned for this morning, Dreama Campbell's annual New Year's Day 10-miler on the Cumberland Trail in the Soddy-Daisy area.
"I was just out here to have fun," Loffland said.
Harper had fun showing he could be competitve now. He grew up in Pikeville and attended Sequatchie County High School before his time at the college in Dayton, and he now lives in Hixson and works for Unum downtown.
"I remember racing this one back in high school and college," he said. "Since it had been a while since I've raced, I considered this my comeback race. I felt great. I stayed easy early on. Coming over the (Walnut Street) bridge the first time through, it was just me and one other guy, and at the crest of the bridge I just made a little surge so I could run by myself and control my own effort and not get sucked into racing."
Harper said the rain actually was good for him, because it ensured that he would not get carried away and go too fast.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.