Hipson wins Johnny Miles Marathon
Dave MacLennan’s came oh so close to winning his 12th Johnny Miles Marathon.
The Scotsburn runner recorded a chip time of 2:53.03 on Sunday during the Johnny Miles Running Event, a mere 27 seconds behind Yarmouth’s Bryan Hipson.
“It’s always nice to win, but I wasn’t anticipating as good as time I had this year because I came off (the Bluenose Marathon) beat up,” he said.
The Bluenose took place last month.
“I’m glad they started at 7 a.m., because it’s warmed up and it’s very humid.”
MacLennan said Hipson passed him somewhere along Stellarton Road and he was unable to catch the eventual winner, but he had no regrets.
“I tried to keep going as best I could, but I’m really happy with the time.”
MacLennan said he enjoys the JMM because it’s a local race and he likes running along the trails on New Glasgow’s west side, part of the 26.2 mile run.
“It’s the local marathon and I know almost everybody around, so it’s great.”
Other locals with strong finishes in the JMM included Dave Hood, who finished fourth (3:10.11 chip time) and Scott Langille, who was in seventh with a 3:18:23 chip time.
Race director Terry Curley said the weekend went of without any hitches, giving credit to all the volunteers who help make things happen.
“We’ve done this for so long, we have such a great group of volunteers and coordinators that everybody knows what their job is and they execute perfectly,” he said.
The long-distance runners were sent off early, with a 7 a.m. start time to try to escape the late morning heat. While the sun stayed behind the clouds, the humidity made its presence felt.
Curley said those runners seemed to appreciate the early start.
“It’s something we’ll keep in place for next year. The staggered start worked well and we’ll do that next year.”