by Thomas Breen | Sep 3, 2018 12:22 pm

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Posted to: Sports, Downtown

Thousands came out to the New Haven Green on a hot and muggy Labor Day to watch, and run in, the 41st annual Faxon Law New Haven Road Race.

The three races began a little after 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The 20K and Half Marathon runners kicked off from the starting line at the corner of Temple Street and Elm Street. The 5K runners started from the corner of Temple and Chapel Street.

John Bysiewicz, the longtime director of the road race (and the brother of Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz), said that 5,173 runners participated in the three races.

In an email press release sent out before the race, Bysiewicz wrote that the local Labor Day race has hosted the USATF 20K National Championship since 1992. He wrote that the long distance runners were competing for a prize purse of over $40,000.

One of the local runners who participated in the shorter distance challenge was 12-year-old New Havener Carlos Rojas, who is in seventh grade at Conte West Hills Magnet School in Wooster Square.

“I feel like it’s a really special day with all of us running together,” Rojas said after finishing the 5K. This was his third year participating in the road race; he can feel himself getting faster and faster each year.

The top three male runners to finish the 20K were Leonard Korir from Colorado Springs, Colorado (1:00:17 run time), Haron Lagat from Colorado Springs, Colorado (1:00:29), and Kiya Dandena from Flagstaff, Arizona. (1:00:34).

The top three female runners to finish the 20K were Sara Hall from Flagstaff, Arizona (1:09:04), Allie Kieffer, and Emma Bates from Boise, Idaho (1:00:29).

The top male runner to finish the 5K was Matthew Farrell from Glastonbury (15:19) and the top female runner to finish the 5K was Emma Zehner from New Haven (17:50).

The top male runner to finish the half marathon was Jacob Edwards from Morritown, N.J. (1:16:23) and the top female finisher of the half marathon was Tracey Early from New York City (1:28:05).

Click on the Facebook Live videos below to watch the beginning of the 20K and Half Marathon, the first finishers of the 5K, and the first finishers of the 20K.