Record-setting overcast day

CELINA - In his first time at the Grand Lake Marathon, Dustin Sprague breezed past the course record.

Sprague, 46, of Dayton, came in at 2:32:26, more than 71/2 minutes ahead of the course record set in 2019 by Arlen Glick, 26, who finished in 2:40.41.

The 2020 marathon was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was a little challenging, kind of a Jekyll and Hyde course," Sprague said. "On the (front) stretch on the lake there, the wind was to your back and it felt like it was downhill, and then when you get to the halfway point and you turn to the side there - it wasn't too bad, but on the way back, it was real gusty, uphill most of the way."

Sprague benefited from better weather than Glick, but also blew away the rest of the field, beating second-place finisher Sato Yashuhiro of Columbus by half an hour and averaging 5:49 per mile. He completed the final two miles in 14 minutes.

The record day marked his 18th marathon and served as a prep for the Columbus marathon on Oct. 17, as Sprague came in nine minutes behind his personal record from Columbus in 2019.

"I wasn't expecting to get a PR (personal record), but I wanted to get around 2:30 and I kind of hit that point," Sprague said. "If I didn't struggle on the back half I probably would've been a little better than that."

Chelsea Hoffmaster of Cincinnati was the top female finisher, coming in ninth overall with a time of 3:16:44.1. Like Sprague, Hoffmaster had never run the Grand Lake Marathon before, and in her case had never heard of it until a few days before.

"I signed up last-minute, on Monday or Tuesday," Hoffmaster said. "I didn't taper (in training), which in the middle I was regretting. I've done a 20-mile run the past three weekends, so, oops."

The runners enjoyed a brisk Saturday morning, with a rain shower cooling the air further. For Hoffmaster, the wet conditions proved an additional challenge.

"Good storm for a little bit," she said. "My shoes are soaking wet, which made them really heavy, so I really felt my calves and everything tighten up."

An experienced marathoner, Hoffmaster came in seven minutes off her PR despite the heavy training and starting out too fast.

"The back stretch was hard," she said. "I hate saying that I walked quite a bit, more than I wish I would've, but at the end you're going up the hills and into the wind and the rain for a bit, and it was rough. But it was a good course. There was patches where, because you're by yourself, it's lonely and I just wanted to drop out. But I'm glad that it's done."

The race returned after canceling in 2020 due to COVID-19. Ryan King, in his sixth year as race director and organizing his fifth race, said that the biggest challenge in returning was making sure people knew that the race would go ahead.

As a result, numbers dropped slightly after the layoff, with the half marathon dropping the most and the 5K.

"After a year off, we were just trying to maintain everything," King said. "A little lower turnout this year, which was expected, but still pretty happy with it … it's things I would expect to come back. We still had people this week changing over to virtual. People are still getting used to events happening."

Dayton's Steve Savage won the half marathon with Nick Knapke of Coldwater coming in second. Emily Borchers, 24, was the top female finisher.

Calen Fledderjohann, 23, of New Bremen won the 5K with a time of 20:55.4. Celina's Jeff Vondrell was 21/2 minutes behind as the runner-up and fellow Celina native Hong Mattmuller was the fastest woman with a time of 26:57.8.