Linda Ewing won the women's 7K-- her second win of the 2005 season.
TAWAS CITY (5/21/05) -- Two Grosse Pointe masters mastered hills of the Huron National Forest at the eighth annual Silver Valley Trail Run.

Mike Frank, 48, won the men's 7K in 27:48. Linda Ewing, 44, claimed the women's race with a new masters course-record time of 32:11.

"Mike told me this race was a lot of fun, so we came up together. He was right," Ewing said.

"You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful course or day. The hills were challenging and I loved running on the soft bed of pine needles."

Ewing has started the 2005 season with a bang. She was overall champ at the Corktown 4-Mile in March, the largest race she had ever won. Since then, she has set 5K, 10K and half-marathon PR's.

"I've been training with Kevin and Keith Hanson in their group workouts. That's really helped me improve," she said.

Leading from start, Ewing finished ahead of Kristi Benedict, 40, of Hale (37:00) and Kelly Vernier, 29, of Howell (40:41).

Only three men finished ahead of Ewing. Trailing Frank were Brian Herek, 33, of Bay City (28:46) and Hale seventh-grader Robert Brent (31:19).

Herek opened a big early lead in the men's race, but knew Frank was tracking him down.

"I knew he was coming," said Herek. "At two miles I was 12:35, he was 12:46. A quarter-mile later, he passed me.

Mike Frank of Grosse Pointe won the men's 7K in 27:48.
"He (Frank) looked really smooth. I was at the bottom of that big hill the last I saw him; he was at the top. Then he pulled away."

The run's founding sponsor, the Corsair Trail Council, passed the baton last year to the Traverse Area Lions Association.

"The race used to be in September, but we had three other events that month so it wasn't feasible," said Lion Dan Kammer, who co-directs the race with Jim Shotwell. "So we moved the event to May."

"Years ago the Lions, working with the Huron National Forest staff, built many of the trails and the wooden bridges that ford the creek here," Shotwell said.

Other sponsors included the Tawas Area Chamber of Commerce, Dean Arbour Ford-Mercury-Chevrolet-Cadillac, Northland Area Federal Credit Union, St. Joseph Health Systems, North Country Signs & Shirts, Iosco Community Credit Union, Print 'n' Go, Carter's Freshables, O'Connor's, Independent Bank, Huron Sports & Fitness, Huron Community Bank and Seymour Carpet & Furniture.

The trail run also included a 5K fun run/walk. MR