It was a time for the youngsters, the amateurs, in Monday's Deseret Morning News men's 10K race.
A couple of 19-year-olds heading into their sophomore years in college took first and second, and a 17-year-old high school senior-to-be took third.
Miles Batty, a Jordan High School product who just finished his first year on the BYU track and cross country teams, followed up his 2005 10K junior race victory by winning Monday's overall 10K in 29:47, seven seconds ahead of Notre Dame sophomore-to-be Pat Smyth of Salt Lake City, a Judge Memorial product.
Matt Tebo, 17, of El Dorado High School in New Mexico, finished third in 30:09.
"I never really planned on surging and taking the lead," said Batty, who has run this race four times now but surprised himself a bit when he found himself the front-runner at about the fourth mile and then cruised on in.
"It just kind of happened. I was feeling good and just was running, and next thing I knew, people were dropping off of me."
Batty, who leaves next month for an LDS Church mission at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil, said he will likely run once more before going — the Provo River half-marathon, which he considers mostly "a fun run."
"I wasn't expecting it at all," he said about winning. "I knew there was a lot of good guys in there."
BYU graduate Josh McAdams was in the lead the first three miles but finished eighth in 31:06, well back of other favorites like 2005 runner-up Mike Nielson (30:22), who was fourth overall; and fifth-place Nathan Robison (30:27). Robison had been sixth in the 2004 Olympic Trials while at BYU. McAdams, Nielson and Robison are all 26.
Monday's sixth place went to Utah's state prep cross country champion, Adam McDonald, 18, of Mountain View High, in 30:39.
Joe Wilson, 30, who had been third in 2005, took ninth in 31:06, and last year's fourth-place finisher, Dennis Simonaitis, 44, was 13th Monday in 31:49.
The race was without its 2004 and 2005 champion, Teren Jameson, who was injured.
"I thought (McAdams) was going to be real tough," said Batty of his in-race thinking. "He won the national championship (2006 NCAA steeplechase). He was right with me, and he's the one that dropped back."
"He had a long track season," said Smyth about McAdams. "I'm sure he's just kind of getting back into things. I saw him there and thought, 'He's got this race.' "
McAdams, from Cleveland, said he wasn't as prepared as he'd thought for the race's downhill section, even though he'd driven the route on Saturday. "I just wasn't ready for how it would feel, exactly," he said. "I've had better days."
When he got to the flat spot about 400 meters into Mile 4, "I just hit the wall and kind of cramped up in my right calf," he said.
He was wishing he'd worn socks "because all the downhill, I didn't really take into consideration, so my feet were burning up pretty good through the first four miles."
He also regretted running 12 miles on Saturday with BYU teammate Josh Rohatinsky. "That probably put me over the top for the week," McAdams said, smiling and saying it was still a good experience — his first time in the Deseret Morning News race and first 10K road race.
Batty and Smyth each started in the back of the pack. "That's what I usually do — go out conservative so I don't get tired early," Batty said.
"I started way in the back," Smyth said. "So I just had to kind of work my way up slowly but surely and just try to run people down. I just kind of played catch-up."
Batty said he caught the leaders sooner than he expected "and just kind of ran with them for a while until slowly people started dropping off."
He's been coming on well since 2006 started. He wasn't especially satisfied with his freshman season in cross country, but he qualified for track NCAA regionals.
"That was a big goal for me," he said.
The second place was Smyth's best July 24 finish, and he was happy with it.
"It would have been nice (to have caught and passed Batty), but he's in great shape," Smyth said. "Miles and I have been racing all season (in college) on the track and in cross (country), so that's kind of fun. We raced out at Stanford and up in Oregon — all 5Ks, though."
E-mail: lham@desnews.com