NEWBURYPORT — Nine months ago Danya Bowden gave birth to her first child and three months later she was easing her way back as a runner.
On a scorching hot Tuesday night, the West Newbury resident took her hobby to a different level, as she was crowned the 5K female champion of the 65th annual Newburyport Lions Yankee Homecoming road race.
“I wanted to get back into running,” she said, minutes after finishing the race and watching over her son Leif. “It was really hard getting back into it. Tonight was really tough, but it’ll help me as I’m preparing to run a marathon in October.”
Bowden finished 12th overall with a time of 18:29.
“I have run this race before, but never won,” she said. “I joined a running club once I got back into running so I have been working my way up.”
Like the thousands of other runners, Bowden battled the excessive heat.
“I started out way too fast,” she said. “I was hurting from my first step all the way to my final step. I think I was just so excited for this, so at the start it was like, ‘let’s go and do this’.”
Newburyport’s Hailey LaRosa finished right behind Bowden, 13th overall in 18:52. Ellery Klatka was 16th overall in 19:23 and Lucy Gagnon of Newburyport, was 17th in 19:24. Last year Gagnon was the top female finisher.
Katie Lennox was 36th overall (20:55), followed by Ella Brown (21:00), Emma D’Agostino (21:15) and Olivia Tracy (21:35).
On the men’s side, Newburyport’s own Steve Dowsett was the overall champion, coming across the finish line at 16:08.
“I always wanted to win this race and I’m just really excited to have finally been able to do it,” he said.
Dowsett is an annual competitor in the race and said his previous best finish was fourth. He cruised to this victory beating out Gabe Miller (16:34) and Dylan Cote (16:45).
“I tried to stay as comfortable as I could with the heat,” said the father of two, who were on-hand watching their dad get top prize. “(Cote) was with me through the first two miles and then I was able to get some separation. It was just so hot out there. I thought I was done several times.”
Dawson Romito was fourth overall (16:52), followed by Joe Rand (17:06), Pat Fullerton (17:20), Matthew Valli (17:41), David Perloff (17:44), Connor Barry (17:59) and Christopher Plante (18:04) to round out the top ten.
In the 10-mile race, Newburyport’s Cam Leonard and Billerica’s Sydney Fitzpatrick were the champions.