Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cheers for runners
Snow Westwood of Bentonville (above photo) cheers for her sister Saturday at the Austin-Baggett Park aid station during the Run Bentonville Half Marathon through downtown Bentonville. Westwood’s sister, Melissa Belk of Springfield, Mo., was the third female finisher in the half marathon. (Right photo) Fans and family line the road to cheer runners near the finish line.
BENTONVILLE — Familiarity helped Derek Yorek win the Bentonville Half-Marathon for a second straight year.
“I must have run that hill 16 dozen times,” the Bentonville resident following Saturday’s race. “You can’t really get a feel for it until you’ve run it over and over.
“I came out and ran on the course quite a bit and just tried to be in better shape. I lifted more weights to get my quads ready for that hill.”
Yorek became the second repeat winner as Taylor Surly won the race in 2012 and 2013, and he finished the 13.1-mile course in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 19.2 seconds, which was about 7 seconds off of last year’s winning time. He finished almost 2 minutes faster than second-place finisher Aaron Caldwell of Fayetteville, whose time was 1:16.05.03, while rounding out the top five were Milosz Golik of Springdale (1:18.45.5) and Bentonville runners Stuart Jackson (1:19:12.7) and Adam Fortin (1:19.25.3).
Yorek said he hung with a tight pack during the early part of the race, then decided to make his move around the 4-mile mark. That’s when he pulled away from the pack, but he never felt comfortable about winning the race until he completed the dreaded hill on the north end of the course.
“I threw in a real fast mile, just to see if anybody would keep up with me,” Yorek said. “Nobody really did, so at that point I had already shown my cards. I just had to keep my foot on the gas from there.
“Once I got a gap, I just hung on for dear life. Until I got to the top of that hill, I wouldn’t even allow myself to think ahead that far. My wife and daughters were right there at the top of the hill, so once I was there I knew nobody was coming past me.”
Alison Rush of Bentonville was also a repeat winner in the women’s division as she earned the title for a third consecutive year. She finished 14th overall with a time of 1:23:59.9, cutting seconds off last year’s winning time and beating second-place finisher Megan Rosa-Caldwell by more than 2 minutes.
“It was a hard day, but it felt good,” Rush said. “I just went out there, ran my best and tried to keep up with some of the guys.
“I’m training a little harder this year, and my time didn’t necessarily show it. I feel stronger and feel like I can go further at that pace. I had to focus more at times. It got a little windy in places, so I just had to refocus and make sure to stay with my game plan of running hard.”
Rosa-Caldwell trailed Melissa Belk of Springfield, Mo., by 36 seconds as the race’s halfway point but used a stronger push at the end to take second. Belk’s time was 1:26:33.7, while Bentonville runners Paige Rosser (1:30.18.8) and Sabrina Rampy (1:30.20.4) rounded out the top five women’s runners.