Camille Herron of Oklahoma set a Strolling Jim 40-mile women’s record and Harvey Lewis of Ohio captured the men’s title during the May 7 festival in Wartrace, Tenn.
Herron’s blazing time of 4:43:59 set the 40-mile record. She was about three minutes ahead of Lewis, who crossed in 4:47.06. John Kruckeberg of Tennessee was the second male finisher at 4:50:36.
The men’s record is 3:55.44, set in 2021 by Zach Beavin of Lexington, Ky. The women’s record was worth $3,000 for Herron. Strolling Jim was the first Tennessee Walking Horse to become World Grand Champion of his breed. Wartrace celebrates its champion each year with a festival that includes the 40-mile, marathon, half-marathon and 10K events.
Andrew Bustos of Huntsville, Ala., was the third male finisher (5th overall), crossing at 5:03.32. It was Bustos’ best finish in the event, which spans the countryside near Wartrace on rural roads. Allison Mercer of Atlanta was the second female (4th overall), coming across at 4:56.31.
Other runners in the Tennessee Valley Outsider area finishing in the top 30 included Mason Price of Chattanooga, Kat Coffee of Petersburg (Tenn.), Kyle Kalbus of Chattanooga, Timothy Ronan of Signal Mountain (Tenn.), James Barnard of Oak Ridge (Tenn.), Dink Taylor of Huntsville, Owen Bradley and Cary Morgan of Birmingham, Mica Anderson of Huntsville, Brian Smith of Madison (Ala.), Malcom Davenport of Huntsville, Kevin Keelen of Chattanooga, Kris Strope of Harvest (Ala.), Chris Kowalski of Huntsville and Stephen Brown of Decatur.
See the full list of 40-mile finishers here.
Results for the marathon, half-marathon and 10K events can be found here.
