Christopher Fraley, left, and Liddy Markham cross the finish line at the 47th annual Canal Run on Saturday, July 16, 2022, in Hancock, Mich. Fraley finished the half marathon in 10th place while Markham was the first to finish the 10-mile walk. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — Stephen Eles won his sixth half-marathon in the past decade at the 47th annual Canal Run on Saturday.

Eles took the men’s division win with a time of 1:15:41.1.

Kate Abbott won won the women’s half-marathon for the fourth time in the past decade with a time of 1:25:46.

Eles was a longtime director of media technology services at Michigan Tech before moving away to Boulder, Colorado, last summer.

“It was nice to be back here for the Canal Run,” Eles said. “It was beautiful weather, and it is always a great course.”

Abbott, of Atlantic Mine, said her only complaint was she was alone for most of the run, which began near McClain State Park.

“I think I was seven miles into it before I caught up to some other runners or walkers,” she said. “However, the volunteers at the aid stations suddenly became my biggest supporters.”

Abbott added that Saturday’s Canal Run was her first race of the season-not by choice by rather due to sickness earlier in the year.

“For about 12 weeks, I was pretty sick,” she said. This has been my comeback, and I hope to get stronger. I want to do the Deer Chase (mountain bike race) in Swedetown in August.

While he is no stranger to the Canal Run’s half marathon, Gowtham, a computer science professor at MTU, set a personal-best time with a third-place finish of 1:32:43.0.

“This feels good,” he said after crossing the finish line in his fifth consecutive Canal Run.

“The key was having a plan and sticking to it,” he said. “I am very grateful for all the support along the race route.”

Among first time runners was Emily Haynes. Her motives for joining the half-marathon race were geographical.

“I recently moved into a house on Canal Road (the race route),” she related. “So, the thought of the racers jogging past my house and me not being in it seemed too strange.”

Haynes finished third overall for the women and said she’ll be back next year. As for that moment when she caught sight of her house, she quipped, “I must confess I did want to take a break and jump on my couch for a break .”

According to race director Angela Luskin of UP Health System-Portage, around 730 runners crossed the finish line in the varied events, and they came from across the United States from Washington state to Washington D.C.

“I am incredibly happy,” she said. “The event went well. Everything went great, and I’m thankful to our community.”

She said that equally important to the success of this mid-summer run are more than one hundred volunteers it takes each year to pull this off.

Making his debut as a Canal Run volunteer was Tim Pinnow. Pinnow just began his new job as president of Finlandia University on July 1. He arrived in Hancock after serving as senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Colorado Mesa University for many years, and he couldn’t be happier.

“This is a great event,” he said. “This is a wonderful community and a gorgeous day. Everyone here has just been so welcoming.”

Not too far away at the finish line handing out medals was fellow volunteer Peter Vorhes, of Larium. The longtime Canal race participant said he had to hang up his running shoes earlier this year and trade it in for a bike.

“With a bad hip, I can no longer run, but you cannot take that running spirit out of me,” he said with a smile. “I love this event. It is a great course, and I am doing what I can to pay it forward.”