Elite marathoners dominate Ice Breaker

Delta Air Lines Flight 4647 landed in Great Falls at 12:23 p.m., 12 minutes ahead of schedule.

If that flight had hit the tarmac on time at 12:35 p.m., Ben Payne would have missed the 1 p.m. start of the 5-mile leg of the 36th Annual Ice Breaker Road Race, a race the Colorado Springs, Colo. native won with a time of 25 minutes, 10 seconds. He took home $1,500 with the victory as well.

"This has been a little bit of a blur," Payne said at the back end of the finishers' chute. "But yeah, I just got into town. I was supposed to get into town yesterday, but flight plans got all messed up with weather."

Payne's voyage to Great Falls to visit friends Bryant and Molly Bevan just happened to coincide with the Ice Breaker, so the elite marathoner — he plans to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials next February in Los Angeles — was planning to run. He wasn't counting on just 37 minutes to get off the plane and to the starting line on Central Avenue, however.

"(My friends) registered me while I was changing clothes," Payne said with a laugh.

Payne isn't the only top-tier marathoner to show for Sunday's races. Helena's Heather Lieberg repeated last year's performance as the 5-mile women's champion in her first competition since a fifth-place showing at the Los Angeles Marathon in March. She was seventh overall Sunday at 28:23, finishing just behind fellow Helenan Evan Eck.

"That's a long street," Lieberg said, looking back up Park Drive onto the racecourse. "You see the finish line, and it looks a lot closer than it really is."

Lieberg said that "sprint to the finish" attitude is just what she needs to make the next step in elite running circles, though.

"I'm just really bad at short stuff, so my coach just tries to get me to do shorter, quicker stuff to work on my speed," she said. "I think the longer the race, the easier."

Payne, an Air Force Academy grad who has run 10 marathons in his career, echoed the benefits of shorter races like the Ice Breaker for marathoners.

"Five miles is fun for me," Payne said. "It's good to work on the turnover, work on the speed and not just always the endurance part."

Lieberg wasn't the only familiar name atop the results sheet. Cesar Mireles, of Richey, won both the 3- and 1-mile races. Mireles, a former Rocky Mountain College runner, was runner-up for the second-straight year in the 5-mile.

Perhaps it was that finish that spurred him to blowing out the field in the 3-mile run. He won by more than 30 seconds, carrying the momentum of a quick second mile during which he lost the pack.

"Then you just kind of cruise through the last mile," Mireles said.

Unlike the marathoners Lieberg and Payne, Mireles said he is more comfortable on the track. Five miles is on the long end of his range.

"I liked the mile and the 3k (kilometer run)," he said.

The 24-year old churned out a 4:13 mile.

Bozeman's Samuel Read took third (and $500) in the 5-mile with a 25:50 time. Nicole Hunt of Kalispell took second in the women's side with a 29:48 while Calgary's Lisa Harvey was third (30:19).

Some of Great Falls' talent showed up on Page 1 of the results as well. Great Falls High harrier Teagan Olson was fifth overall and first in the 13-15-year-old age group in the 5-mile at 27:58. C.M. Russell freshman Cooper West finished second (30:43) in that age group in front of a hometown crowd.

Even Lieberg said she felt encouraged by being a local. The Ice Breaker, she said, feels like racing at home.

"It's got some nice little prize money, and it's just a good local race," said Lieberg, a second-grade teacher. "You don't have to get a plane ticket or anything. You just get up in the morning and drive here. And it's nice to have some locals cheer you on."