Long, Chettle blaze across finish line to win William A. Irvin 5k

Friday afternoon’s William A. Irvin 5k was the kickoff to a jam packed Grandma’s Marathon weekend.

Boasting its largest ever amount of participants at 2,680 registrants, with 2,016 official finishers, it was a cool 75 degrees at the starting line behind the DECC.

For the men Jesse Chettle, who is also running in the half marathon Saturday, took first place with a time of 14:52. He narrowly edged 2021 champion Mason Shea by two seconds. Chettle is the first men’s champion to break the 15-minute mark in this race since Darren Lewis did it in 1997.

Meanwhile in the women’s field Nikki Long ran a personal best time of 16:15 in her first place finish. *It’s nearly a minute faster than the established women’s event record of 17:11 set by Katie McGee in 1996. Long was also almost a minute faster than this year’s runner-up, Lindsey Zimmer.

*A release by Grandma’s Marathon noted, "IMPORTANT: Due to an error by course officials that may have resulted in a slightly shortened race, the 2022 William A. Irvin 5K times are unofficial and under review until further notice.."

Full, unofficial results of this year’s race can be found HERE.

Grandma’s Marathon is set to begin Saturday, and WDIO will be providing full race day coverage.