FREEPORT — Age was no impediment to victory at Saturday’s Surfside Beach Marathon, as men older than 40 claimed the three top spots in the 26.2-mile race. Nacogdoches runner Rick Autrey, 46, was the first finisher, winning in three hours, 10 minutes and 46 seconds.
Autrey was followed by visiting Canadian Ed Bickley, 49, who finished in 3:12:22, and last year’s masters champion, Ed Sturdivant of Missouri City.
Inexperience was no impediment, either, as Huntsville’s Adrienne Langelier won the women’s title in her first-ever marathon.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Langelier said. “But, after training on the trails at the state park, the flat course made a huge difference.”
Langelier, a graduate student at Sam Houston State University, finished in 3:36:12.
Almost 200 runners went the marathon distance, with about 350 taking on the half marathon. The unique race is the only marathon in the country run entirely on sand, making it an unusual experience for most runners and adding 10 or more minutes to their typical marathon times. Bickley, for example, ran 2:54 at last month’s Chevron Houston Marathon, where Sturdivant clocked a 2:46.
With a relatively late start scheduled for 8 a.m., the marathon faced warmer temperatures than in recent years, and the sun took its toll on the early finishers. Shortly after the three-hour point, however, a dense fog blew in, cooling the course but reducing visibility to a few yards.
“The heat really took it out of me,” Sturdivant said.
Fourth-place finisher Scott Tonnessen agreed.
“I needed it to be 10 or 20 degrees cooler,” the Friendswood resident said.
The half-marathon faced fewer variables in the weather, with most runners finishing before the day heated up and well before the fog rolled in.
Fort Bend Fit triathlete Dave Depinet ran to a first-place finish in 1:32:10, opening a large gap ahead of Alvin runner Mike Bass’s 1:38:16. Depinet’s Fort Bend Fit teammate David Camen was third in 1:38:51.
Catherine Kruppa of Sugar Land won the Surfside Beach Half Marathon women’s division in 1:36:49.
“I ran this race last year, and knowing the course was a big advantage,” she said.
Kruppa led the women throughout the race, and finished 10 minutes ahead of Pearland’s Shelah Miner, who finished in 1:46.
“We come to the beach all the time, but I’ve never gotten to race here,” Miner said.
Third-place runner Elisabet Borsheim, a Galveston resident, does some training in the sand, and turned in a 1:47 in her first Surfside outing.
“It was beautiful,” she said, “but I started a bit hard, and by the 12th mile I was just holding on for the finish line.”
The Surfside Beach Marathon is the second event in the Texas Marathon Triple, a three-marathon circuit that concludes March 15 with the Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon.
