Tupelo Results

The article below is taken from a marathonguide.com race report. I have included it here since I remarked about the second place runner at the 16-mile mark. You'll find this person is a remarkable runner:

Tupelo Marathon - Sep 6 - Tupelo, MS Justin Radke, 33 of Little Rock AR, the runner-up at the 2004 Little Rock Marathon, won the 2009 Tupelo Marathon in 2:43:14. But the story is really about the second finisher Leah Thorvilson who is on a tear in 2009... Thorvilson, 30 of Little Rock AR, was the defending champion and course record-holder with her 2:53:22 in 2008. Running the 2009 race as a training run in preparation for the USA Women's championships at Twin Cities, winning a 5K in Memphis the day before and planning a 5K (which she won) in Little Rock the day after and stopping for a "potty break" enroute - Thorvilson still knocked more than 7 minutes off her course record to finish second overall in 2:46:10 - not bad (or not good?) for a training run and taking Thorvilson's 2009 record up to two wins (Little Rock in 2:44:23 and Tupelo) and two runner-up finishes (Green Bay in 2:37:56 and RNR Seattle in 2:38:49). Leonard Vergunst, 53 of Ocean Springs MS, the race director of the Gulf Coast Marathon in Mississippi and arguably the best over-50 marathoner in the country and a heck of a guy, finished third overall and was the second male in 2:50:39. Vergunst, previously had finished second in 2003/2005/2007 and third in 2004/2008. Josh Hite, 31 of Cookeville TN, the winner of the 2009 Drake Well and Boogie Marathons, was third male finisher and fourth overall in 2:52:37. Marissa Esser, 22 of Decatur GA, was the second female finisher in 3:19:28. Beth Presten, 27 of Bethlehem GA, was the third female in 3:30:23.

And, now that we have left the race report, Greg Sankey of Birmingham, Alabama finished in 152nd place overall, 122nd place among men and 19th in the male 45-49 age group division. All this was achieved with an official time of 4:32:44.