Frederick’s Williams claims 10K honors – Boulder Daily Camera

Alisha Williams has run plenty of 10K races over the course of her life but at this year’s Sunrise Stampede, the Frederick native had a little more skin in the game than usual.

Williams was the first female runner, 11th overall, to cross the finish line at Silver Creek High School on Saturday morning with a time of 38 minutes, 22 seconds. It was a rewarding victory for the 37-year-old runner who was the second female finisher in 2018.

Knowing that the entry fees for the race are donated to the Education Foundation for the St. Vrain Valley, an independent non-profit organization that helps support local schools like her alma mater Frederick High, made Williams’ victory even more satisfying.

“That makes me feel really good about paying the entry fee and coming out here to race and support the school district,” said Williams, who graduated from Frederick in 2000. “There are a lot of students out running in the race, some of them are current Frederick High School students. That was pretty cool to be able to give back to a school that prepared me really well for life.”

Designed and measured using USA Track and Field recommended techniques and equipment, the Sunrise Stampede course provides one of the fastest 10K races in the distance running hotbed that is the northern Colorado area. Many runners use the course, which loops through the fields and streets around Silver Creek High School and Altona Middle School, as a tune-up for summer and fall half or full marathons.

Hillary Chesire was among the elite-level runners who were running Saturday in preparation for bigger and more competitive events. The 28-year-old, who was runner-up in the Horsetooth Half Marathon earlier in the summer, won the 10K race with a time of 31:08, which he believed to be a good sign of things to come once he returns to his native Kenya to race marathons in several weeks.

“The race was good, the weather today was good and the starting was well-organized,” Chesire said. “This was my first time and I thought the course was really nice. I’ve been staying in Longmont to train for about six months and I think with my time here, I’ve really helped myself.”

In the Sunrise Stampede’s two-mile event, 35-year-old David Zakavec took first place with a time of 10:28. He edged current Silver Creek senior Henry Terhaar by two seconds.

“The weather was great today and it was great to have some cloud coverage,” Zakavec said. “I did a race last weekend and it was so hot. I’m running the Fortitude in Fort Collins coming up soon so I wanted to come out here and get some faster pacing to see what I had in me. I had some good competition pushing me out there so it was a good race.”

Brad Cochi: bcochi@prairiemountainmedia.com or on Twitter @BradCochi.