By AL LOSEY Star-Gazette
CORNING -- Early-morning fog gave way to bright sunshine for more than 660 marathon and 450 relay runners who made their way from Bath to Corning in the 19th annual Wineglass Marathon on Sunday morning.
The overall winner, Alem Kahsay of New York City, led from start to finish and beat three-time Wineglass winner Terry Stanley by seven minutes, 30 seconds. Women's winner Emily Bryans, an English teacher from Schenectady, finished 12th overall, coming from behind to win the women's title by less than two minutes.
Kahsay, 28, was a member of the Ethiopian national track team for five years before settling in New York six years ago. His winning time of 2:35:06 is 20 minutes more than his personal best, but he said his intentions were not to set a record in the Wineglass.
"I am getting prepared for the New York City Marathon next month," Kahsay said. "My intention today was to run the first part easy and speed up for the final 15 miles.
"But the wind was difficult to make a good time and there were so many turns. I averaged 5:45 per mile at the end; that's the speed I usually train. It felt easy."
The 48-year-old Stanley, whose Wineglass wins were in the late 1980s, wanted to average 6:10 per mile, but he decided to keep up with Kahsay for the first nine miles.
"There was no one else out there to race with and (Kahsay) didn't know the course, so we were talking quite a bit," said Stanley, who is from Eldred, Pa. "He threw in a couple of 5:45 miles after the 10-mile marker and I couldn't keep up."
In fact, Stanley faded to third from mile 14 to mile 20.
"I got a side stitch. I didn't know if it would go away, so I slowed a bit," Stanley said.
Third-place finisher Boyd Brumbaugh of State College, Pa., passed Stanley at about the 15th mile but had his own problems at mile 21.
"I was losing some juice," said Brumbaugh, who is 37 and was running his 37th marathon. "The wind sort of got to me. It kept us cool, but it took its toll."
Bryans, 33, in just her fourth marathon, came on strong from about the 12-mile point and set a personal record in 2:59:13.
"My best before this was 3:19," Bryans said. "I felt strong all the way through. I was much better prepared than I have been before."
At the nine-mile marker Bryans was five minutes behind eventual second-place women's finisher Shannon McHale of Marietta, N.Y. Bryans closed the gap to one minute at 16 miles and passed McHale at about the 20-mile point.
"I just wanted to run as fast as I could for as long as I could," said McHale, who ran 3:01:08. "At about 20 miles I ran out of gas."
Carolyn Silvey of Toronto was third in the women's open division in 3:08:31.
The winning male open relay team was the Technotrousers, made up of Tom Bombruck, Mark Roberts and Caleb Shulman of Rochester, who finished in 3:10:05. The top female open team was made up of former Southside High School standouts Michelle Grund, Katy Spotts and Jessica Webb, who finished in 3:26:59.
The first-place mixed open team, which finished second overall among the relays with a time of 3:04.03, was called the Load Bearers and consisted of Elmira-Corning area natives Michael Girardi, Adam McKane and Vicki McKane.
The masters male winners from Merrill Lynch finished first overall in 2:57:17 and included Greg Nagle, Kurt Cornfield and David Reed all of Corning.
The top female masters team was Watson's Wart Women, named in honor of former Watkins Glen teacher and coach Mike Watson. The team included Shirley Woodford, Marie Fitzsimmons and Diane Sherrer and finished in 3:34:28.