LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) _ Gov. Bill Graves took time off from his race for re-election to run a different sort of race this weekend.
Graves competed Sunday in the 10-kilometer Governors Cup race in the Sunflower State Games. He finished fifth in his age group in a time of about 48 minutes on a hilly course around Lone Star Lake southwest of Lawrence.
"I went out a little too fast," Graves said. "At two miles, I started pulling back a little."
Graves has been running for about 20 years, but his duties as governor and the demands of campaigning for re-election haven't left him much time to get in racing shape this year.
"My training base is very inadequate to be doing a 10-K," he said. "I'm only running three to four times a week for 30 to 40 minutes. But I do it more for mental reasons, to relieve stress."
Graves said his personal best in a 10-K was 39:08 in 1985. He also has run five marathons, his best time coming in the Honolulu Marathon, which he finished in 3 hours, 28 minutes.
His last marathon was New York City in 1993, but Graves said he hopes to get back into serious training and perhaps run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.
"I need to hook up with a group of Kansans to train," he said.
The Governors Cup was run in a steady rain, on a course that many runners think is closer to 6.5 miles than the 6.2 miles a 10-K course is supposed to measure.
Ed Payne of Lawrence, who finished just ahead of Graves in the 10-K Sunday, said he was impressed with the governor's strong finish in the race.
"It's refreshing to know that not only is the governor an athlete, but he's actually pretty good," Payne said.
After the race, just as the steady rain turned into a deluge, Graves handed out awards to the winners in both the 10-K and 5-K races.
David Johnston, a former Lawrence High School and University of Kansas runner, was the overall winner with a time of 33:55, and Leslie Curley was the first woman, finishing in 42:05. Tim Lange won the 5-K in 15:57, and Megan Noonan was the first woman at 19:30, Sunflower State Games officials said.
The 1998 Sunflower State Games concluded Sunday after two weekends of competition. More than 8,000 athletes took part in the games last year, and 8,000 to 9,000 were expected this year in 33 sports.
The Sunflower State Games is an eight-year-old Olympic-style amateur sports festival for athletes of all ages and abilities who live in Kansas. Forty states and the District of Columbia have similar games.
The 1999 Sunflower State Games is scheduled for the weekends of July 16-18 and July 23-25, in Lawrence and the surrounding area.
Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.