Chad Ware, 26, of Deerfield, Ill., darted across the finish line of the Firecracker 5K in Columbus 15 seconds ahead of last year’s winning time.
Ware ran his first mile in 4 minutes, 26 seconds and finished at 15:13.2, beating Stuart Moran’s time of 15:28 in 2010 and winning $100. Ware stopped to run the race on his way to Columbia, S.C.
Leading the women’s division was 48-year-old Susan Rogers of Spartanburg. Rogers crossed the finish line at 21:34. She came in second during last year’s race.
“That second mile takes it out of you for sure,” Rogers said of the race. “But you don’t realize it right away. You don’t really feel it until that last mile and then it catches up with you.”
Rogers said she thinks temperatures this year also slowed down pace times for many. Fellow runner and Spartanburg resident Henry Sparrow said he enjoys races like the Firecracker 5K.
“I like the smaller races because you feel akin to what’s going on. They had people at every mile giving times and it wasn’t like some races with 4,000 runners throwing elbows,” he said.
This was the second year for the Firecracker 5K. Ross Fox, former organizer of the Coon Dog Day 5K, brought the race to Columbus last year.
“That race started out with about as many runners and grew dramatically,” Fox said. “We’re hoping this one will grow in the same way.”