In the first year the BlueCross Riverbend Run & Walk was based at Cameron Hill, Cameron Bean won the featured 10k race.

Bean, a Samford University runner from Baylor School, won the Riverbend Run 5k last year but did the 10k this time because he plans to try the Waterfront Triathlon in July, and that includes a 10k run.

He won in 32 minutes, 32 seconds Saturday morning. Geno Phillips was second in 35:11, and Joe Sneed ended Hugh Enicks' four-year run as Riverbend masters winner (40-older) with a 36:18 for third place. William Warner and Mary Preisel were the grand masters winners (50-older).

Sneed, from Soddy-Daisy, left soon after the race to go to Danville, Va., where he is preaching revival services this week.

Jan Gautier remains the only women's winner since the featured race went to 10 kilometers, as she finished in 43:00 for her fourth Riverbend title in a row. She will be the Baylor boys' varsity cross country coach this year while remaining coach of the middle school girls.

Gautier, 43, joked that no one "wants to run an extra three miles" but admitted she wants to see how long she can keep her streak going. Ashley Manning, 25, and Catie Skogen, 22, were the second and third female finishers Saturday in 45:27 and 45:50.

"I'm going to keep running the 10k unless I get back down to 17 (for a 5k)," Gautier said. "This is a nice start to the summer and a nice kickoff to summer training. I want to be able to motivate my team by my own training."

Bean said he felt "pretty good" after what he called his first speed work in his triathlon preparation.

"I'm been running about an hour a day five or six times a week," he said. "I bike every day and swim twice a week."

He pulled away Saturday from the other 10k runners when they split off from the 5k course and ran basically alone for the last four miles until rejoining a 5k pack near the end.

Bean said he's been doing a lot of training with Andy Highlander from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga program coached by Gautier's husband, Bill. Highlander wasn't happy with his 36:47 time but finished fifth, 16 seconds behind Dalton's Manuel Ferrer. Enicks, 49, was sixth in 37:17.

"This guy -- he's a product of his training," Highlander said of Bean. "He always goes two to five minutes farther than anyone he runs with."

Many of the runners noted that the Riverbend course was harder with a couple of hills added, including the closing two-tenths of a mile.

"It's not easy. It's not flat anymore," Sneed said. "But I felt good. I definitely like longer races as I've gotten older. A 15k is probably my best distance now."

UTC's Chris Berry and Tara Gieteman won the 5k Saturday in 15:21 and 18:44. It was the third consecutive Riverbend 5k triumph for Gietema. Tom Sell and Wendy Houston were the masters winners; Welton Davison and Paula Cooper were the top grand masters.

More than 1,100 runners participated in the two competitive races plus the 5k walk and the 1-mile family fun run/walk.