The starting gun went off Friday afternoon with the running of the William A. Irvin 5k, kicking off the Grandma’s Marathon weekend races. The race took off at 1PM for the first time, with a new and improved course.

The new start time did not deter runners from coming out, with 1,500 athletes participating in the event.

After a little over 15 minutes, the first runner would cross the finish line at Bayfront Festival Park, that runner would be 23-year-old Mason Shea.

“It’s so rewarding. This is my favorite event. We try to come up here every year. Last summer I was out of town unfortunately this weekend, so just being back in the area was so fun and really happy to do it,” said Shea. “I like the new course. It was fun to double back and see all the other runners and cheer them on as I was going. The long downhill after two miles is pretty nice as well, but I thought it was going to be really cold and then kind of heated up the last half an hour or so, but it was a really fun course.”

Shea claimed his third William A. Irvin 5K championship title with a time of 15:32. He is only the second men’s runner to win the event three times. Shea joins Scott Behling as the winningest men’s runners in the event’s history.

For the women’s finishers, it was a middle school girl who would lead the pack. Thirteen-year-old Mackenzie Myran came racing in with a time of 18:34, outpacing second place by six seconds.

“It’s really good, I love it. I had a goal, and I just tried to pick off the people that I could and then just stay out there,” said Myran. “I did this last year too and I really loved this course. I love being down by the lake too. It’s really cool.”

Myran becomes the event’s youngest women’s champion ever, taking over for Laura Hughes who won the event in 2007 at the age of 15.

The top nonbinary finisher was Marcus Carmicle with a time of 22:04.

For more information on the William A. Irvin 5k, click here.