The Fast Lane -- Park Forest Scenic 5-Miler

It was a bit humid, but the temperature was 63 with cloud cover as runners in the Park Forest Scenic 5 headed out on Monday morning. It was a small but quality group of runners for the race directed by Bud James. In the men's division, Kenyan Julius Kiptoo, 32, based in Durham, N.C., won in 23:30, setting an event record. Harbert Okuti, 23, based in New Rochelle, N.Y., was second in 23:56, and Lazarus O Nyakeraka, 33, living in Country Club Hills, Ill., was third in 23:57. As you can see, James still has no problem luring top-level runners to his watered-down event from what used to be the nationally-known Scenic 10. On the women's side, defending champion Lucie Mays-Sulewski, 39, of Westfield, Ind., won again in 28:56. She was followed by Jean E. Marinangeli, 25, of Arlington Heights in 29:05, and CARA overall women's leader Suet-Fei Li, 33, of Schaumburg, in 29:20. This was a superb event with no flaws to speak of. It was a small field of 372 finishers, many of whom were competing for points on the CARA Runners' Choice Circuit. For those of you who have raced in Park Forest in the past, but have not done the 5-miler, the pancakes are better than ever!