Santa Monica Runners Win Fourth of July Race

The 34th annual Palisades-Will Rogers 5/10K took place on morning, and two Santa Monica runners crossed the finish line first. 

The 5K twisted through streets in the Huntington neighborhood, and the 10K continued on to Will Rogers State Historic Park and back to the Palisades Recreation Center.

The first woman through the chute was 38-year-old Santa Monica resident Therese Fricke, who won the race for the third time. Fricke completed the 3.1-mile course in 18:24—her fastest-winning time on the course. The Santa Monica Track Club runner also won the race in 2005 and 2009.

"This is my best time here, so I guess I'm getting faster as I get older," Fricke said. "I wanted to get under 18 [minutes], but I felt the heat in the middle of the race. I was running with all the Fluffy Bunny [Track Club] guys when a girl suddenly passed me, but soon I realized she was running the 10K."

Fricke, who is also a solo singer/songwriter and a pilates/fitness trainer, has won the 5K three of the four times she has run it. She has also run the 10K, which she said she wants to try again next year.

"The thing I love best about the race is the community support," said Fricke, who won her first race when she was 12 years old. "That makes it so fun."

Fricke's is working toward longer races. She won the Memorial Day 5K in Brentwood, but the Palisades 5K is her first one back as she prepares for the fall cross-country season. Her personal best at the 5K distance is 17:52, which she clocked in college at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington.

The men's 10K winner was Ironman triathlete Jim Lubinski, who ran a 5:15 minutes-per-mile pace to win in 32:35. Lubinski last ran the race in 2005, shortly after moving to Santa Monica from Chicago. That year he finished in 35:30.

"I trained right into this race," said the 32-year-old, who ran a half-marathon in one hour, 10 minutes last month in San Diego. "This is a good gauge of my fitness level. This is a tough course, and I tried to push on the downhills to make up for the time lost going up the switchbacks."

Lubinski is shooting for the Olympic Trials in the marathon but said he hasn't run a marathon in "a long time." 

Twenty-nine-year old Andrew Lockton finished second in the 5K in 16:14, and fellow Santa Monica resident Aiden Cullen was second in the 12-and-under age division in 22:46. Arden Lassalle won the men's 13-15 age division in 17:18 and Richard Nelson won the men's 60-64 division 20:56. 

Emily Berkin was first in the women's 5K 16-18 division in 20:42, and fellow Santa Monica resident Casey Brandenberger won the 30-34 age division in 23:17. Leslie Cohen won the 55-59 age division in 21:20, and Linda Martin won the 65-69 age division in 31:14, with fellow Santa Monica resident Judith Burns finishing second in 32:35.

In the 10K, Peter Birney won the 19-29 division in 36:53, and fellow Santa Monica resident Danny Cappiello was first in the 40-44 division in 36:54. William Hewes was first in the 55-59 age group in 44:57, Ken Murphy was second in the 70-74 division in 1:00:17, and Dusty Snyder was first in the 75-79 division in 1:04:58.

Santa Monica's Ginna Ladd won the women's 10K 35-39 division with a time of 41:22 and Roisin MacMahon was second in the 50-54 age group in 50:32. 

There were 2,471 runners in this year's race, including 249 from Santa Monica.

Click here for complete results, broken down by age group, city, gender and bib number.