Many runners from the Sioux Falls Area Running Club participated in this year's Sioux Falls Half-marathon and 5k. The bright sun and low humidity made conditions fairly nice for this year's event. SFARC runners placed 5 in the top 10 men overall, including winner Frank Bendewald, and the SFARC women placed 3 among the top 10 women, led by Kristin Brown's 7th place finish.

Frank Bendewald's winning time of 1:10:02 was well over a minute in front of 2nd place runner Matt Hoyt from Vermillion, SD, while SFARC's Tracy Hellman finished in 3rd place overall with a time of 1:13:11. Also among the top 10 men from the SFARC were Scott Walschlager 7th, Jamie Peterson 9th and Dan Sorensen 10th.

Kristin Brown's (1:36:01) 7th place finish led the contingent of SFARC women, Lisa Fligge followed in 9th place, while Sue Kersten was 10th overall among the women.

In the 5k Matt Bien seperated himself from SFARC runner Ken Winter in the early going to win in 16:29, Winter was 2nd overall in 17:55. Leading the way for the women was Des Moine Iowa's Kristy Feldman in 18:54, while SFARC's Rhonda Anderson led the way for the club's women in 25:45.

Following are some finish photos from the half-marathon:

SFARC's Alvin Uecker from Freeman, SD finishing    Marie Sample from Marshall, Minn. won for the women.
the half-marathon.

Dave Braley sprints in past Tim Burnison                       Kathy Neises from Madison, SD was the 2nd female
of Sioux Falls

Tony Thorson from Brandon finishes up.                         Greg DeSautel was 15th place overall.

Club members Michael Toy and 
Owen Hotvet  just past 7 miles