St. George Marathon: Cook, Lee take the gold medals on race’s 40th anniversary

Written by Andy Griffin
October 1, 2016

ST. GEORGE — The St. George Marathon turned 40-years-old this year and the old girl, well, she’s doing just fine.

“It’s as healthy as it’s ever been,” said St. George mayor Jon Pike. “Marathon, 40 years, incredible history, and a wonderful opportunity to host people from all over the state, country and even the world.”

2016logohRiley Cook of South Weber, Utah, won the men’s event, missing the all-time record for the St. George Marathon by just 13 seconds. He finished with a time of 2:16:09. The SGM record is 2:15:56, set by this year’s second-place finisher, Bryant Jensen.

“My good friend, Bryant Jensen, was right behind me,” Cook said. “I hit a wall at mile 25 and really felt quite poorly. It felt like he was right there on me, so I just pushed with everything I had. Every step was a struggle, all the way to the finish. But I made it.”

Cook said he was exhausted, more than he usually is after such an event.

Riley Cook crosses the finish line to win the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News
Riley Cook crosses the finish line to win the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

“I was running scared,” he joked. “It was very competitive this year, a lot of great runners.”

St. George’s own Aaron Metler actually beat his winning time from the 2015 race, but had to settle for third place in this year’s race. Metler spent the first 30 minutes after the race in the medical tent, getting treatment for cramps and exhaustion.

For the women, on old friend of the race returned triumphantly as Rosy Lee broke the tape for the win. She came in at 2:40:45, 14 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Lindsay Nelson. Lee won the race in 2013, but took the last two years off. At age 40, she said this was, perhaps, her last marathon.

Women's winner Rosy Lee at the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News
Women’s winner Rosy Lee at the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

“I’m 40 now and I’m like, this is my marathon. We’re both 40,” she said. “I took two years off, but I had to do this one. My husband said this is my last one. But we’ve said that before. But I think this is it.”

It took everything Lee had in the tank to outlast Nelson, the 27-year-old who was running her very first marathon.

“Yeah, this is my first one,” Nelson said. “Three years ago I was training and I was in really good shape, but I got pregnant. I had a daughter and she’s now two. But I’ve been putting in the miles, 70 to 80 miles a week, sometimes 20-plus mile runs, to prepare for this. I’m pretty shocked by how well I did. I was hoping for 2:50 and I was, like, 2:40 high.”

Lindsay Nelson finished in second place despite this being her very first marathon, the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News
Lindsay Nelson finished in second place despite this being her very first marathon, the 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

St. George’s Amber Green, who won last year, placed in fourth.

There were nearly 7,800 runners registered for the 2016 Marathon, with finishers as young as 10-year-old Ava Simmons of South Jordan and as old as 81-year-old Vera Vann-Wilson of Blue Diamond Nev.

St. George city race officials were happy with the participation this year, both from the runners and the volunteers.

“It’s been a lot of fun, with it being the 40th anniversary, and we’ve been trying to do a lot of extra fun things,” said SGM registration’s Emilie Pinkleman. “With the volunteers who come back every year, they help put on an incredible event. There are hundreds of them, working on course preparation, filling bags, aid stations, clean up. So many things. I think that’s why events like this do so well here. It’s just the tremendous support from the community.”

Pike echoed those sentiments.

The 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News
The 2016 St. George Marathon Saturday morning, St. George, Utah, Oct. 1, 2016 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

“It’s a beautiful day, a beautiful course and an incredible event,” he said. “St. George and the surrounding communities come out in force to help out.”

In all, 47 of the 50 states in the US were represented in the 2016 race, as well as runners from 24 foreign countries, including China, Japan and Australia.

However, more than half the runners are from Utah, plus another nearly 900 from California.

About 1,100 of the runners are from Washington County, approximately 14 percent.

The wheelchair winner was Emily McQueen of San Jose, Calif. (with a time of 1:44:03), while the handcycle champion was Chris Sproule of Las Vegas, who completed the 26.2-mile course in 1:03:15.

Full race results can be found on the SGM website.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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