Katie Hluchyj, of Norwich, Vt. reaches out to slap hands with Alex St. Martin as she approaches the finish line of the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Quechee, Vt. Sunday, June 5, 2016. St. Martin and several of his Hartford High School classmates were volunteering at the finish to raise money for a Spanish immersion trip to Peru. Hluchyj finished 132nd in the race with a time of 1:38:30. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Katie Hluchyj, of Norwich, Vt. reaches out to slap hands with Alex St. Martin as she approaches the finish line of the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Quechee, Vt. Sunday, June 5, 2016. St. Martin and several of his Hartford High School classmates were volunteering at the finish to raise money for a Spanish immersion trip to Peru. Hluchyj finished 132nd in the race with a time of 1:38:30. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News photographs — James M. Patterson

What if they held a 13.1-mile road race and nobody showed up? That hasn’t been a problem through 25 years for the Covered Bridges Half Marathon, and it wasn’t an issue — even in steady rain — on Sunday when nearly 1,900 runners completed the route from the Suicide Six Ski Area in Pomfret to the polo field in Quechee.

Sunday’s race held a familiar ring to those who are regular participants. Enfield’s Rich Smith, 46, won the event for the fifth year in a row and the sixth time since 2008, completing the route in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 34 seconds. Lebanon’s Harrison Little, 30, finished second about 2½ minutes behind.

There was a repeat winner in the women’s division as well. Windsor’s Phoebe Novello, 22, took third place overall in 1:19:48. Novello sliced nearly four minutes off her time from 2015 and moved up 13 places in the final standings from her finish last June.