Walt Disney World Marathon and Half Marathon, 2000
By Jennie McCafferty
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL (1/9)_Sterling Heights' Kevin Hanson was up against 5000 entrants and some tough competition when he took second place in the Walt Disney World Half Marathon with a time of 1:11:07.
Both the Men's and Women's U.S. Marathon champions decided to run the Half Marathon at the 7th running of Walt Disney World's Marathon and both won their respective races. Men's 1998 champion Keith Brantly originally planned to run the marathon as a "hard training run" in preparation for the 2000 Olympic trials, but a training injury forced him to choose the half marathon instead, winning it in a time of 1:09:46. Women's 1999 champion Kim Pawlek's won with a time of 1:15:19, beating out running legend Ingrid Kristiansen who took master's honors and second overall with 1:17:23. Kristiansen has held world records in the marathon, 5K and 10K, and, at one point held all three world records concurretly. Pawelek, incidentally, won the US 25K championship at the Old Kent Riverbank Run in May of 1999. When asked about what it felt like to compete against Ingrid Kristiansen, Pawelek pointed out that it was an honor to run with a legend and that there was "lots to learn from someone who had been running for longer than I've been living!"
Both the Marathon and the Half Marathon reached capacity at 10,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Larry Gutierrez of Fenton, was the first Michigan runner to cross the Marathon finish line with a time of 2:51:51. Mike Webster of Northville, MI was the first of 10,000 marathon runners to cross the Marathon finishing line wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Jose C. Silva, 2:25:40, of Sao Paulo, Brazil beat his running partner, 1998 WDW Marathon winner Santiago Araujo, 2:30:03. Jennifer D. Uwins of Stafford, Virginia won her first marathon ever with a time of 2:54:51. Walt Disney World named former Michigan star and five-time Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Cindy Keeler to the top ten list of runners called Florida's Finest. Keeler also had planned to run the marathon, but an injury forced her to cancel.
