A 20-year-old Kenyan man and a Kenyan woman ranked ninth in the world by Running Times magazine bested a field of about 1,000 runners this morning in the inaugural Run Gloucester 7-mile road race through the city's downtown, parts of East Gloucester and around the Back Shore.
Alan Kiprono, who had finished second in the TD Bank Beach to Beacon road race in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, earlier this month, was the race's overall winner and captured the men's crown with a time of 32 minutes, 54 seconds, while Lineth Chepkurui topped the women's field in 37:23. Chepkurui had also won the women's division in the Beach to Beacon run, the Peachtree 10k race in Atlanta, and had placed second in the Falmouth Road Race the previous week.
While the elite Kenyan runnes topped the field, Run Glocuester also drew a top-notch contingent of Cape Ann runners and, in many ways, stood as a celebration of the city's and Cape's rich running culture.
Among the Cape Ann runners, Matt Curran of Gloucester was the first male finisher, while Layce Alves of Rockport topped the women's field. As Cape Ann's top finishers, they were presented the first Austin Connors Jr., Cup, a tribute to the late longtime owner of Connors Pharmacy, who was also an avid part of the local running scene.
Alves' time of 44:57 placed her fifth overall in the women's field. Curran fiished 19th in the overall men's field with a time of 41:26.
Aside from being a major race on New England's running calendar, the event — with the Gloucester Daily Times and Saucony, the running and athletic apparel company as primary sponsors — was being seen as a new economic development tool and tourism destination for the city, with runners and their families and friends encouraged to come to Cape Ann for the weekend or longer in conjunction with the race.
The weekend also included the fourth Downtown Block Party of the summer along Main Street Saturday night. The race also served as a benefit for the Gloucester Fishermen's Athletic Association, which raises money to offset participation fees for student-athletes at Gloucester High School, and is now at the forefront of a major drive to rehabilitate GHS' Newell Stadium.
The race was organized by Boston Marathon technical race director Dave McGillivray and his DMSE Sports Inc., which coordinated bringing in the elite world-class runners for the field. The GFAA, meanwhile, provided and coordinated the more than 60 volunteers who staffed the race's water stations and handled other organizational duties at the start and finish line — the Fishermen's Memorial on Stacy Boulevard.
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