PARKERSBURG - For Lee Stough, he's competed in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel Half Marathon race-walk four times and now has won it twice after Saturday's victory.
His first Parkersburg half marathon race-walk win occurred in 2015. "That was my last time here," said Stough. "Then I was out two years with an injury to my right leg and I couldn't do race walking. But now I'm back and I'll be back here.
"I'm 36; I'm sure I'll be doing this for at least 25 more years. And I love this race, so I'm back here every single time I can."
Article Photos
Lee Stough crosses the finish line as the Parkersburg News and Sentinel Half Marathon women’s walk champion Saturday.
Photo by Jeff Baughan
On Saturday, Stough "wanted to make sure I didn't go out too hard or keep an aggressive pace today when I didn't have to because in 2011, I did that and had a big lead at the 9-mile mark, but then got two very vicious cramps and I ended up finishing third. Because two people caught me, I slowed way down, and didn't want that to happen today.
"And I always never want to slack off because there are so many good people here. And I know that if I get weak, that somebody could be right behind me at any time. You just never can let up in these races."
Stough thinks he "was ahead of the field the whole way Saturday," with the Glassport, Pa. resident winning with a time of 2:14.45, but only 15 seconds up on runnerup Michael Browning from Columbus finishing in 2:29.34. Third was James Lapinski at 2:30.14, fourth Don Slusser at 2:31.29 and with fifth place going to Parkersburg's Brenis Phillips' 2:47.58 clocking.
"So it was pretty close, and that goes back to what I said, 'You can't let up here,'"said Stough, who lamented only having 44 race-walk participants Saturday. "I would really like to see more competitors."
Stough "didn't start (running) until 2004 after I graduated from college," he said. "I did it just for something different to do, and then I started race-walking in 2007, just because I saw some other people doing it and I thought, 'Wow, this would be fun to try.' And I ended up really loving it."
"The race-walking and the running also actually help each other out. I'm more of a runner than a race-walker, but on this course, it's race-walking because of the competition."
Stough's analysis of the Parkersburg half marathon course is that "this is probably the second-toughest course I have race-walked or run, even though I haven't run it. Probably the Wheeling course, the Ogden race in May, is the hardest course and this would be the second hardest. But I love that challenge."
The injury that sidelined Stough was to his right-side hip inductor, caused by overaggressive training, "and it's one of the major muscles used in race-walking," he said. "I had to not do it at all for two years. I just came back this May and did a half marathon in Wheeling after only three weeks of very intense training and then I trained hard since then for this one."