A UGA graduate from Greenville South Carolina was the fastest runner at the eighth annual AthHalf half marathon Sunday. With a time of one hour, seventeen minutes and six seconds, Jack McGinnis beat out more than two thousand runners who took to the streets. Michelle McKenzie, a UGA graduate from Flowery Branch was the fastest woman with a time of one hour, twenty-seven minutes, forty seconds.
More than 290 volunteers helped out with this year’s AthHalf event, which included a Health and Fitness Expo and 5K road race on Saturday. The proceeds from the event support the local nonprofit AthFest Educates. The organization has awarded over $310,000 in music and art education grants to date.
WUGA’s own Victoria Knight and her mom Laura Parkhill, were among the runners.
Parkhill did it less than a year after having major surgery.
"To celebrate my recovery from a 12-hour brain surgery that I had at Vanderbilt Hospital last November of 2016," said Parkhill. "And Victoria and I ran a half marathon in Knoxville in April of 2016, before I had the surgery. So I just wanted to have that one more time that her and I were able to do something like that together."
Victoria and her mother finished the race and they crossed the finish line together.
