MISSOULA – Approximately 1,400 runners and walkers packed onto the Higgins Street bridge Saturday morning to begin the 5k race. The course began there and took the runners across the bridge and through the hip strip, eventually ending up in Caras Park where each participant received a medal.
Hundreds more crowded the park to watch the racers cross the finish line. Matt Winter won the race with a time of 16:38.
Winter will also be competing in the full marathon on Sunday and said the Saturday before is a nice warm-up for Sunday’s 26.2 miles.
“Nice, cool morning, a little bit of breeze coming out of Hellgate Canyon and just a good little amount of people out here enjoying Missoula on a Saturday morning. I just like running the 5K before the Missoula Marathon starts — just kind of blow the legs out a litlte, get nice and loose, and the marathon pace (Saturday) is really easy in comparison,” said Winter.
