Adam Veron, Jenny Vance win Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon

Trail running action close up of running shoes in action. / Pavel1964
Trail running action close up of running shoes in action. / Pavel1964

"V" stood for "victory" Saturday in the 40th running of the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon.

Adam Veron of Hixson won the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 45 minutes, 58 seconds (gun time), and Jenny Vance of Knoxville was the women's winner and 11th overall in 3:08:39.

Former winners Jason Altman of Knoxville and Kaye Starosciak of Canton, Georgia, were the gender runners-up and masters winners in 2:48:54 and 3:11:28 (14th overall). John Kruckeberg of Thomson, Georgia, was third overall in 2:49:02, and Chad Dean (2:50:27), Ryan McGinnis (2:51:30), Matt Celone (2:51:51) and Lucas Cotter (2:54:41) also broke the 3-hour mark.

Tricia Beaty (3:22:04) and Belinda Bernard (3:31:04) were the third and fourth female finishers. Bernard and Texan Jeffrey Petersen were the grand masters winners, and Alabama residents Paul Baswell and Betty Holder took senior grand masters honors.

Christian Thompson led the 697 half marathon finishers with a time of 1:08:06, five minutes ahead of masters winner Rodney Stoker (1:13:18), who had four minutes on third-place Mitchell Hollis (1:17:16). Zach Buffington was fourth (1:17:46) and Doug Daniel was fifth (1:22:40).

Rachel Nokes was the 13.1-mile female winner and 21st overall in 1:35:46, with Janis Kelman second (1:36:58) and the masters honoree and Brittany Walsh third (1:38:26).

Atlanta-area runners Boris Abreu and Paula Johnson were the half marathon grand masters winners, and Ohio's Randy Turk and Floridian Candace Gibson were the senior grand masters winners.

The event also included the Fort Oglethorpe 5K, and Jesse Sewell won that in 19:55 with Josh Morin and Tripp McCallie second and third in 20:09 and 20:26 and Marie Heymann the first female in 22:47. She was 10th overall, and 14-year-old Helen Webb was her runner-up and 17th overall in 24:44.

Compiled by Ron Bush. Contact him at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.

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