Benford pulls away from Putnam 200 meters from finish line

Benford pulls away from Putnam 200 meters from finish line
Davis leads women’s field by comfortable margin

Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Andrew Benford has run in only a handful of road races in all of his 23 years.

After Saturday’s win in the inaugural West Virginia 5K Run/Walk Championship, don’t be surprised if the 23-year-old Ravenswood, W.Va., resident – and University of Richmond standout – tries another one soon.

Benford, who just missed qualifying for the NCAA outdoor track championships, eeked out a 1.6-second victory over Eric Putnam as the two neared Putnam Square in downtown Huntington. Benford stopped the clock in 14 minutes, 54.3 seconds. Putnam finished in 14:55.9.

Benford was impressed with the day’s festivities, meant to be a catalyst towards a healthier lifestyle for residents of the Huntington area since a November 2008 report cited it as the unhealthiest population in America.

“In the future, I think I’m definitely going to try and come down for this one,” Benford said. “I really like the course. When you look at all the road races in West Virginia … they’ve kind of diminished over the past 10 years or so. You won’t see a more competitive road race anywhere in the state.”

And that competition ran the age gamut from 18 to 35. Putnam, the latter, is cross country coach at Shawnee State University in Ohio. Casey Batey, former standout at Marshall and West Virginia universities, is one of at least four collegiate All-Americans in the race. Along with Batey and Benford, there also was women’s winner Jennifer Davis and Huntington’s own Jason Pyles.

Benford’s win was anything but easy. He started at the front of the pack from the beginning but by the 1-mile mark shared the lead with Putnam, Pyles, Bateyand Matt Shiffbauer.

By 2 miles, the race belonged to either Benford or Putnam. Benford said Batey and Pyles were “just kinda hanging on” and Shiffbauer had dropped off the pace.

“In the last mile of the race, me and Putnam kinda separated (from Batey and Pyles),” Benford said. “I started to really up the ante a little bit. (Putnam) was a really tough competitor. Over the last mile, I couldn’t shake him. Basically, I was doing everything I could without killing myself.”

Benford didn’t need death to win – he needed only to see the finish line. As the pair rounded the final turn toward Putnam Square, “we both really started kicking. For the first 200 meters of the kick, we were still even.”

Somehow, Benford finally found an edge that Putnam couldn’t match and crossed the finish line first.

“It was a really fun race,” Benford said. “They had over 500 people out for the first year, which is … for the fattest city in America, that’s pretty good. I think it’s gonna take things like that to kinda change that image.”

Batey finished third in 15:11.9 and Shiffbauer, 18, was fourth in 15:19.7. Matthew Boyles, of Rio Grande, Ohio, was fifth overall in 15:20.5 while Pyles dropped to sixth in 15:34.7.

The top 11 men finished under 16:30 and the first 19 finishers all were under 17:00.

Davis, the women’s winner, didn’t have quite so difficult. She cruised into the finish in 17:13.5. Marian Pyles, 25, of Huntington, was second in 18:18.1 and 14-year-old Jorden Thornton, of Culloden, W.Va., was third in 19:31.4.

Benford said getting people excited about the sport of running is no easy task, particularly in a football crazy town with Marshall University’s Thundering Herd.

The filming of “We Are Marshall,” the 2006 drama film starring Matthew McConnaughey which recounted the real-life tragedy of a 1970 plane crash which killed nearly every single team member, players and staff, and how the university community responded, helped rejuvenate the downtown Huntington area. And then … nothing.

Efforts leading up to filming “made this downtown look wonderful,” 28-year-old race director Pat Riley said. “Bad thing is, we weren’t really ready for revitalization yet.”

That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Riley said an energetic base of healthy minded young people are “working hand in hand with what you would call your ‘old guard.’”

“Right now, you can go downtown and you see a lot of revitalization going on,” Riley said, helping to “restore the greatness that is already there.”

Email Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.