750 expected to run Glass City Marathon

4/10/2003

About 750 runners are expected Sunday for the 27th annual Glass City Marathon and Relays, which will begin at 8:05 a.m. on Summit Street in downtown Toledo. The runners, including two and five-person relay teams, will be traversing the 26.2-mile course that begins downtown and finishes at Promenade Park.

The 2002 men's champion, Henry Maldonado, has a back injury and will not enter. Former Sylvanian Pat Benedict, who won the Glass City Marathon in 2000 and '01, and ran in Boston instead of Toledo last year, is entered. Benedict now resides in Brighton, Mich.

The fastest predicted time is 2 hours, 35 minutes, by Ryan Greutman of Lambertville. He's 24, ran track and cross country at Airport High near Monroe and at Michigan Tech, and ran a 2:32 at the Chicago Marathon.

Current Glass City records are: Open men - Tom Fries (not entered) 2:28:17; Open women - Sarah Davis, 2:54:50; Masters (40 and over) men - Dennis Scott, 2:40:30; Masters women - Wen-Shi-Yu, 3:17:28 (1989); relay, 2:19:41.

Nancy Schubring, from Novi, Mich., will return to defend her women's title. Her personal best is 2:57.

Former Sylvania resident Lois Berkowitz, 54, now of Riverview, Mich., will be running in her 188th marathon, third-most among American women.

Entries will be accepted and packets may be picked up Saturday from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. on the second floor of SeaGate Centre and there again on race day (Sunday) from 6 a.m. until 7:59 a.m. Proceeds go to the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse.