The Firecracker Fast 5K course starts three blocks west of Little Rock's Heights business district on Kavanuagh Boulevard.
By the time front runners in the field of 1,446 reached it, less than a minute after the Monday morning start, brothers Shaun and Brett Koehn had begun to pull away.
Shaun Koehn, 24, said he and Brett Koehn, 28, might eventually develop a sibling rivalry. For now, the younger of the two has the upper hand.
Shaun Koehn pulled away from older brother Brett shortly after 2 miles and held off the late charges of Lane Alexander and Mark Ferguson, to win in 16:04.70.
Brett Koehn finished fourth overall in 16:30.6.
Mountain Home's Alexander, 19, a sophomore on the Southern Arkansas cross country and track teams, was second in 16:15.20. Mark Ferguson, 43 of Little Rock, was third overall and won the masters' race in 16:15.40.
Elizabeth Gillette, 18 of Texarkana, won the women's race in 18:14.0. Whitney Campbell, 29, was second in 18:40.2. Goshia Hightower, 30 of Searcy, finished third in 19:09.7.
Shaun Koehn, a 2015 graduate of UALR, where he ran track and cross country, said he knew going into the race that he was fitter than his brother, who is also his current roommate in Little Rock. Brett Koehn agreed, and said he was happy to have share the lead as long as he did.
The Koehns, who grew up under the same roof in Enid, Okla., ran together through the first mile of the 3.1-mile race in 4:58, seven seconds ahead of a pack of four that included Alexander, who Ferguson was near enough to set his sights on. He missed by inches of catching him in a final dash at the finish.
The 1-mile mark of the Firecracker is about two blocks past the start of a long descent, from the Heights on Kavanaugh and Van Buren Street, to the intersection of Van Buren and Markham Street, near War Memorial Stadium. It is the section of the course that inspired race founder Gary Smith to place the word "Fast" in its title.
The younger Koehn pulled away away from his brother as they passed 2 miles in 9:52, 4 blocks away from the intersection of Van Buren and Markham.
Shaun Koehn glanced back as he entered War Memorial Park, and as he passed the No. 14 tee box of War Memorial Golf Course, he saw that Alexander had moved into second place.
Gillette said she wasn't sure where she stood in the women's race until she was well into the final mile, though she thought the lead was likely hers.
"It was hard to tell where I was," said Gillette, who graduated last month from Texarkana's Trinity Christian High, where she won multiple Arkansas Class A championships in track and cross country.
"I really didn't see any women around me."
Koehn knew exactly where he was relative to Alexander, the only runner left with a chance for victory. As Koehn turned left on Zoo Drive, with the Little Rock Zoo to his right, his lead had dwindled to nine seconds.
There, he began the final quarter-mile, a steep uphill grind toward War Memorial Fitness Center and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus. By the time he crested the hill, and turned to his left toward the finish line, his victory was secured.
Smith, who started the Firecracker series as a 7-mile run through Cammack Village on July 4, 1977, rode in the pace vehicle as the 40th Firecracker unfolded. "This hill usually decides it," he said. "I think people forget about it."
"I just tried to kind of cruise up that hill," Koehn said. "I knew I would have a nice downhill to the finish, so I wanted to save a little for that."
Gillette said she realized the women's victory was hers as she crested the final hill, but in her case, it wasn't because she had pulled away from anyone.
She saw no other women runners in front of her.
"That's was the first time I actually knew for sure that I was in the lead," she said.
Koehn won his first Firecracker in three attempts. Alexander ran the course for the first time and said the final hill surprised him. "You're going along and it just seemed easy," he said. "Everyone was going so fast, and then you come to that hill. I could see he was starting to pull from me."
Sports on 07/05/2016