Key Largo Bridge Run Attracts Over 800
KEY LARGO (CBS4)- Two South Florida residents won overall men's and women's half-marathon titles Saturday at the third annual Key Largo Bridge Run in the Florida Keys.
Chris Oesch, 44, of Weston, placed a time of one hour, 21 minutes and 52 seconds. He's a project engineer originally from South Africa.
Rachelle Ginsberg, a real estate broker from Miami Beach, ran 01:36:31 to win the women's division.
"I prefer half-marathons, and this race offers a great variety and really beautiful views," said Ginsberg, 33, of her first time entry in the Key Largo event.
Runners from 27 U.S. states as well as the Bahamas, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland competed among the event's 819 participants, Andy Newman of the Florida Keys News Bureau reported.
Under sunny skies, the out-and-back foot race crossed the 65-foot-high, 1.25-mile-long Jewfish Creek Bridge and the southern portion of the 18-Mile Stretch, a segment of U.S. Highway 1 between Florida City and Key Largo that was recently completed after $330 million in improvements and a construction time of nearly seven years.
Slideshow: Key Largo Bridge Run Attracts Over 800 Participants
In the 10K division, Jonathan Volpi placed first with a time of 32:58, a new course record for this event. Valerie Azra's time of 41:26 earned her the women's title. Both runners are from Boca Raton.
Top honors in the 5K men's and women's divisions went to Miami resident Jon Williams, 42, who previously held the course records for the race's 10K and 5K events, and Tamara Klopenstein, 53, of Ft. Lauderdale. Each posted a time of 17:54 and 23:38, respectively. Williams' time sets a new course record for the 5K.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Andy Newman of the Florida Keys News Bureau contributed material for this report)
