St. Albans’ Hector Falcon, who competed at Saturday’s 37th running of the News and Sentinel Half Marathon for the first time, got out to a quick start and never looked back as he topped the field with a clocking of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 29 seconds. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett St. Albans’ Hector Falcon, who competed at Saturday’s 37th running of the News and Sentinel Half Marathon for the first time, got out to a quick start and never looked back as he topped the field with a clocking of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 29 seconds. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — St. Albans’ Hector Falcon made the most of the opportunity at hand here Saturday morning during the 37th running of the News and Sentinel Half Marathon as the native Texan was the first to cross the finish line on Market Street thanks to a winning effort of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 29 seconds.

Falcon, who said he’s lived in West Virginia for the past 25 years, led from start to finish as Chase Bulten’s clocking of 1 hour, 11 minutes and 41 seconds produced a runner-up showing.

“It was good heat training. This is my first time and I’m getting ready for the Chicago Marathon (Oct. 12),” Falcon said. “I was just trying to get a decent time and prepare for Chicago. They said it was going to be warm and I was trying to prepare for that.

“I pushed through, but I wasn’t expecting that last hill. That about did me in, but it was a good race. It was good, but that hill. You think you’re done and you turn the corner and all you see is a big hill.”

Bulten, who wasn’t too far off the pace in his quest to capture the Road Runners Club of America West Virginia state championship, also was competing in Parkersburg for the first time in his career.

“I’m the (head) cross country coach at Campbellsville University,” said Bulten, who had enough to hold off the rest of the top five that featured Serhii Shevchenko (1:12:08), Carter McKenna (1:12:48) and last year’s runner-up Andew Taylor (1:13:02).

“We’re in our preseason right now and I was able to get away for the weekend.

“I found the race and it was great fun. I’m just by myself. I made the trip up here. I’m getting ready for the IMT Marathon (on Oct. 19) back in Iowa (Des Moines). I looked at it online and I saw it was really hilly and I saw the weather was going to be hot so I thought the first half of the race I’d have to stay tempo or slower.”

Despite sticking to his plan and having a great showing, the Tiger didn’t have quite enough to track down Falcon.

“It actually felt a lot harder than tempo pace. It was a pretty tough day out there I thought,” Bulten admitted. “He was up by himself pretty much from mile 1 and I tried to surge up there and give him someone to run with, but I couldn’t hang on. I was maybe with him for a mile and he took off again.”

Jackson Gibson placed sixth with a time of 1:15:04 and was followed in the top 10 by Scott Burnham (1:16:10), Breydon Gates (1:24:53), Alina Boshchuk (1:24:40) and Aaron Estep (1:26:40).

“Keep building the miles. This wasn’t a down week,” Bulten stressed. “I’m just going to keep training until the IMT Marathon.”

James Lapinski (1:09.08) finished nearly 5 minutes ahead of half marathon walk runner-up Brent Stark (1:14:07) while Jason Mader (1:14:13), Daniel Stewart (1:16.46) and David Torbett (1:17:44) rounded out the top five.

Belpre’s Brian Woodyard won the wheel half marathon with a time of 1:16:20.