PORT ANGELES — Yusheng Ni crossed the finish line with his thumbs raised.
Ni, from Beijing, China, was the first finisher, and for the next few minutes he received verbal and literal pats on the back from strangers.
A few minutes later, Ni saw his friend Phillip Xiu, who was holding a camera and taking photos of Ni.
After talking to Xiu for a few seconds in a language he understood, Ni finally find out that he won the North Olympic Discovery Marathon.
“Number one! Number one! Number one!” Ni shouted as he raised his arms.
Ni doesn’t speak English, but he knows the language of winning.
Ni out-ran the 259 runners Sunday to become the marathon’s 13th winner, finishing with a time of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 29.62 seconds.
And he had plenty of energy to spare.
“No tired,” Ni said, with Xiu serving as an interpreter.
It was the second marathon in seven days for the 44-year-old. He placed 94th at the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Diego Marathon on May 31 with a time of 3:12:52.
On Sunday, Ni completed the marathon more than eight minutes ahead of second-place finisher Adam Reid of San Francisco (3:13:52.61).
The women’s marathon was much closer.
Taia Sean Wu of Bellingham won with a time of 3:13:57.53, less than a second ahead of her Scripps College teammate, Kaitlyn Spees of Oakland, Calif. (3:13:58.34).
“Kaitlyn pulled me from like Mile 15 to Mile 26, and then we kicked in together,” Wu said.
“We were together the whole time.”
Both were running their first marathons, having just finished their senior seasons with the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps track and field team (they also ran cross country for the Athenas).
“This is our first post-college race,” Wu said.
“Our coach doesn’t let us run them during college, so you have to be done with the program, and then you’re allowed to do one.
“A lot of people on the team, after they finish their last season, will run a marathon around this time.
“We’ve already trained for the whole season, so it’s kind of nice.”
Their marathon-specific training was short — “You shouldn’t ask us that. Like, a week and a half,” Wu said — but their season of track training was enough to finish ahead of every other runner, besides Ni and Reid. The end, though, was a struggle.
“I felt pretty good until Mile 22-and-a-half, and then was like, OK, OK — OK, I’m ready,” Wu said.
Wu moved around gingerly after the race but had a hard time pin-pointing her pain.
“My left foot hurts, I guess,” she said.
Spees seemed mostly unaffected by the previous 3 hours and 13 minutes.
“I’m pretending I’m not getting tendinitis,” Spees said.
Wu laughed and said, “Don’t put that in the paper: The second-place finisher is pretending she doesn’t have tendinitis but actually does.”
Due to damage to Railroad Bridge in Sequim earlier this year, the marathon’s course was altered this year and included a couple of out-and-back stretches.
Wu didn’t mind.
“I loved them. It was a nice way to break up the course, and also it was so cool to be able to see people and be able to cheer for people. Everyone was so nice,” Wu said.
“It was really fun. I definitely would do this marathon again.”
Amanda Bender of Seattle was the third female finisher of the marathon with a time of 3:26:00.
Colby Wait of Port Angeles was the top finisher from the North Olympic Peninsula, placing 10th in the men’s race with a time of 3:26:07.
Ash Laydon of Port Angeles was the Peninsula’s first female finisher with a time of 4:27:59, which placed her 40th in the women’s division.
The marathon had 112 male and 147 female participants.
Butler, Long win
Peter Butler, a senior at Port Angeles High School who earned medals in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races at the Class 2A state championships late last month, was the winner of the half-marathon with a time of 1:17:13.
Kristi Houk of Port Orchard was the female half-marathon winner with a time of 1:28:25. The Peninsula’s top female finisher was Sequim’s Emily Ellefson, who was fifth (1:40:20).
Port Angeles freshman runner Gracie Long made a habit of winning races during her first high school cross country and track and field seasons.
That continued Sunday when she was the overall winner of the 5-kilometer race with a time of 19:23.
“It was kind of hard. I hadn’t really been training that much,” said Long, who, like Butler, earned two medals at the state meet last month.
Connor Coatney of Port Angeles was the top male finisher of the 5K, finishing in 21 minutes and placing 10th.
Don Young of Port Townsend was the overall winner of the 10K with a time of 40:06.
Seattle’s Angela Wishaar was the top female 10K finisher (44:37). Lara Malpass of Port Angeles placed second (45:37) in the women’s division.
PAHS Running Club won the marathon relay with a time of 2:55:32.
See the complete results for all races at www.tinyurl.com/NODM2015.
________
Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
