Sports
Newcomers Prevail at Reyes Adobe Days Races
Runners relatively new to the sport topped a field of over 900 local and out-of-town participants, cruising through the rolling hills of Agoura Hills before ending at Paramount Ranch.
Over 900 runners and walkers finished both the Reyes Adobe Days (RAD) 10K and the inaugural 10-mile race on Saturday.
The RAD races ushered in the three-day day eighth annual Reyes Adobe Days festival.
The mostly local field included participants from neighboring cities as well as out-of-towners from as far as Florida, Idaho, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Texas and Arizona.
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The point-to-point picturesque course from Yerba Buena Elementary School to the Western town of Paramount Ranch featured a sprinkling of rolling hills along the way, passing by the 160-year-old Reyes Adobe Historical Site, Forest Cove Park and the historic El Camino Real.
Crispin Lazarit of Santa Monica won the inaugural 10-miler, finishing at 59:18 and topping a field of 464 participants.
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“I was going for 58 minutes but I’ll take 59:18 because it’s still first place,” said the 38-year-old who has never won a race before.
Lazarit, who started running about three years ago, said he took the lead from second-place finisher Horacio Pena at mile 6.
Third-place finisher Rony Sanchez was equally psyched to land in the top three, clocking in at 1:00:45.
“I just started running last year, so I’m really thrilled with my finish time,” said the 29-year-old from Reseda.
In the women’s division, Elizabeth Bojanowski Lluch, 51, was the first to cross the finish line with a time of 1:08. She said, “It’s a great comeback, considering I broke my ankle three months ago.”
Lluch, a Malibu resident, was also the top female finisher of this year’s Pacific Half Marathon in Agoura Hills.
For the 10K, West Hills resident Steve Berardi prevailed over 454 participants.
Just like Lazarit, the 29-year-old has never won a race previously. “For the most part, I would say I was running in third place until the last 1.3 miles, when I took the lead,” said Berardi.
Aside from the addition of a new distance, live runner tracking was also added this year.
“Participants and their families [were able to] sign up for text updates and attach their Twitter and/or Facebook accounts,” said race director Danny Greenberg. “They [were] able to tell when their loved one has started and when they have crossed the finish line.”
The website also has live results and finish line videos, two improvements from previous years, according to Greenberg.
Finishers were shuttled to Reyes Adobe Park for the traditional pancake breakfast courtesy of Maddy’s Market, Albertsons, Bruegger’s Bagels and Ladyface Ale Companie.
For complete race results, click here.