Dale Deibert was not one of the top finishers out of the 10,000 runners who raced in the Cherry Creek Sneak on Sunday, but he was running for three. He pushed a stroller with his daughter, Hannah, 3, and son, Quincy, 18 months, inside.
Deibert, a Highlands Ranch resident, started running in 2001 when he was overweight. When his children were born, he decided he would run with them every weekend and share his passion. Now that he has dropped the fat, he pushes the extra weight.
“I can run faster without them,” he said. “But it’s not harder.”
Or nearly as much fun.
Families like Deibert’s dominated the scene at the 26th annual Sneak. Moms and dads ran with their children in the 1/2-mile Sneak Fun Run, while the more competitive opted for the 5-mile Elite Run.
Nelson Laux of Arvada won the elite race, and his Boulder Running Co. teammate, Payton Batliner, was second.
Batliner, a Boulder resident and former University of Colorado runner, had won the previous race the duo competed in, with Laux finishing second. The two were neck and neck for nearly the entire race until the final kick, when Laux pulled ahead and won with a time of 24 minutes, 40.6 seconds. Batliner finished nearly five seconds behind, and third-place finisher Aaron Carrizales of Gering, Neb., was 45 seconds behind Batliner.
“Trust me, I was still expecting you to come around me,” Laux said to Batliner after the race.
“I just got done with finals, so I’m a little flat,” Batliner said.
Danielle Korb of Fort Collins won the women’s elite race, but she did not have as much competition as Laux — in fact, she had none at all. Korb, a former Colorado State runner, was the only female entry in the event and finished in 28:31.4.
“It was different, but fun,” she said. “I think I went out too fast because the guys were tearing out of there.
“I was alone out there for a little while on the course. It’s hard to run with guys, because you never know when they’re going to take off and leave you in their dust.”
In the women’s open 5-mile race, Sarah Shepard of Glenwood Springs won with a time of 29:23.6, and Carol Menry of Charlotte, N.C., finished second.
Denver resident Jon Kinner won the men’s open 5-mile race in 28:55.1, and Larry Sradley of Greenwood Village finished second. Denver’s Pauito Lopez won the men’s 5K in 17:27.8, with Daniel Lupa-Chazan of Boulder finishing second. Sarah Pizzo won the women’s 5K in 19:04, with Deirdre Matthews of Bailey second.
The Sneak organizers were pleased with the weather, sunny and around 50 degrees, and the turnout, which race director Amy Downing estimated was equal to last year’s.
