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Anatole Vartosu won the men's race and Meredith Anand took women's honors in the Weston Memorial Day 5K Saturday at Weston High School. The race attracted its biggest field ever, according to race officials, with 775 runners registered.
Vartosu, of Stamford, won the men's race in 16:54, while Easton's Anand paced the women's field in 18:45. It was the first victory for each of them in the Weston race.
Vartosu's win was his third this month. He won events in Stamford and Greenwich earlier in May, and finished second in a Fairfield race. He said he used the Weston race to prepare for a race Monday in Greenwich.
"It was a very nice course,'' Vartosu said. "There some hills, but the weather was nice today. It was a good day for running." Vartosu said a friend, Joe Schwartz, encouraged him to run the race. He said he was surprised that in such a large field, he was relatively unchallenged. He won by 45 seconds ahead of Westport's Tom Harding. Weston's Brad Demarco was third in 18:17. "After the first kilometer, nobody was close to us. I was happy with the time. I kept a steady pace."
Anand also jumped into the race for the first time. "I just wanted to race this weekend,'' she said. Anand finished eighth overall. Kate O'Hern Lyons took second in 19:09 and Norwalk's Marisa Eddy finished third in 20:12.
"I have two young children so I don't have a lot of time to train,'' Meredith said. "I used to run this distance in college. Right now, this is my best distance." Complete results are available here.
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