One of the toughest battles in the 2001 Azalea trail 10K was determining which GWTC team Breeda Dennehy-Willis was going to run on – the men’s or the women’s. Mary Jean Yon brought the debate to an abrupt halt, locking her in to the women’s team with a wink and a sly smile at the guy filling in the team rosters. He was swooning and pleas to get Breeda on the men’s team were just ignored.
Breeda not only was the first Tallahassee finisher across the line, but she ran a road PR to take fourth place among the women and 30th place overall. That was good enough for a $1,000 prize. Despite the fact that she is just getting over a series of injuries, she wound up a mere four seconds out of second and only 18 seconds behind the winner. Her 33:00 minute effort is her first hard race since overcoming foot injuries. She started conservatively and began reeling runners in after a few miles. Breeda’s best 10K time is 32:11 on the track.
Tim Unger was the first local male running 35:26 (a bit slower than his 10K split at River Run), but good enough to place him 8th in his age group and 57th overall. Mary Jean and David Yon are both enjoying their new age groups. David finished 2nd in the Men 45-49 (37:14) and Mary Jean finished 3rd in her age group (44:43). The GWTC team jerseys looked good racing around the flat fast course. Unofficially, the Men’s team came in 2nd behind the New Orleans Track Team, a repeat winner, and the Women’s team came in 5th. Complete stats on the local performers are right here.