Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
As good as it gets
Winners relish the spoils of victory
Tucked behind temporary fencing a few steps from the Little Rock Marathon finish line, Colin Boerger needed a chair. And a sports drink. And a few minutes to pull himself together.
The 26-year- old Kingston, Mass., native promised on-site medics that he was as good as anyone could be after running 26.2 miles.
But given that Boerger claimed he hadn’t even trained hard for this race, there was at least some level of shock that he’d won it.
Finishing in 2:40:44, Boerger grabbed first place at the 2023 Little Rock Marathon on Sunday morning, earning a win in just his second competitive full marathon. Brooklyn’s Dan Lemelman and Skokie, Ill., native Greg Chaganos rounded out the men’s podium — with times of 2:44:38 and 2:54:20, respectively — while Jessy Sorrick of Columbia, Mo., topped the women’s field in 3:09:55.
A total of 1,045 runners completed the 21st edition of the race, but it wasn’t until his final 20-plus minutes that Boerger had an idea he’d be the one lifting the winner’s trophy just behind the Statehouse Convention Center.
“It was at [mile marker] 23 with 5K left … I had about a half-mile lead,” Boerger said. “I was like, ‘[ Lemelman’s] hurting just as bad as I am. I’ve got no excuses.
And he took a hint from the past marathon he’d run with his sister, Emily, in May 2019 when they worked in tandem to complete the Maine Coast Marathon in under 3:30.
“I said, ‘ We’re going to stop for 15 seconds,’” Boerger said, describing his self-talk from Sunday’s race in Little Rock. “I look at my watch five seconds later and said it was time to go.”
Boerger opened up a nearly two-minute advantage by the halfway point of the 26.2 miles, then stretched it out to almost 31/ by Mile 20 and 2 sustained most of it going into the final 3.2 miles.
“I was just really hoping to go sub-three [hours] and
I was talking to a guy — the first mile we were both going around 6:00, 6:05 [minutes per mile],” Boerger said. “I would feel stupid going out slower and not having it, and it just never fell off, so I kept chugging along.”
The women’s competition was a slightly more competitive affair, although not necessarily at the start.
Sorrick, 34, jumped to an 86-second lead within the first 10 kilometers and was nearly four full minutes ahead of second-place finisher Melissa Hambuchen at the halfway point.
“Honestly, she was way ahead of me,” said Hambuchen, a 27-year-old Conway native who had run the Little Rock Marathon three times previously. “I didn’t even see her.”
Sorrick ran alongside her husband, Jordan — the 18th-place finisher in the men’s competition — for the first five miles of the race before forging ahead solo the rest of the way.
Jessy, who ran competitively in high school, transitioned more toward the triathlon world because of knee injuries, and along with Jordan and their friends from Missouri, they do a handful of competitions across the country each year.
Typically, they’ll do a few sprint triathlons, a few Olympic triathlons and then either a half- or full-distance Ironman triathlon along with a pair of marathons — one in the early spring around March and another in the late fall around November.
Sorrick had run in Little Rock once before, but the conditions this time were drastically different.
Unlike in 2014 when temperatures were below 50 with light rain and wind throughout the race, Sunday saw highs of 72 degrees and there was but a cloud in the sky as runners made their way down the Little Rock waterfront.
And in addition to being familiar with the course, Sorrick had also recently run near the front of a race. She finished second at the 2020 Heart of America Marathon in her hometown of Columbia and then did so again at the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Marathon in Springfield, Mo., last November.
But Little Rock marked her first-ever win. “You’ve got to sort of go with what feels comfortable,” Sorrick explained. “Sometimes, it’s am I breathing too hard right now? You’ll get a feel for like, ‘Am I working too hard?’
“I didn’t really feel like I had to hit it hard at anything. If anything, I was more trying to save myself for the hills between Miles 12 and 16, so once I got through that point, that’s when I essentially was like, ‘Okay, now try to keep on going.’”
Sorrick, finishing ninth overall with a 7:17 minute per mile pace, was the lone woman among the top 10 runners.
Her time was almost a full half-hour longer than that of Boerger, who hopes to have an opportunity to run at the famed Boston Marathon — a mere 45 minutes from his hometown of Kingston, Mass. — in 2024.
What Boerger won’t have to wait for, however, is ice cream.
Wearing shorts and a backward hat adorned with donuts, ice cream cones and other dessert items, Boerger explained that a couple of friends from the area half-jokingly promised to take him out for ice cream if he won Sunday.
With Boerger fulfilling his end of the bargain, perhaps a bonus scoop would soon be on its way.
“That’s where we’re headed [tonight],” Boerger said with a laugh.