Photo by Seth Staskey| Laurel Jefferson won the women's division of the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic on Saturday.

WHEELING — Laurel Jefferson was getting quite nervous as she looked around the area in which she and her husband were camping in Deep Creek, Md.

The Springfield, Va. resident was wondering where she would be able to complete her running workout for the day.

So, she started looking around the internet to see what options there were. She stumbled across the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic in Wheeling. She quickly Googled that it was just two hours away and promptly talked her husband into the trip.

“There was literally nowhere to run, so I quickly started searching where I could run and if there were any races nearby,” Jefferson said.

They departed Maryland at 4 a.m. and arrived in the Friendly City in plenty of time to warm up and eventually win the overall female title at the 45th installment of the race.

“I had read this (race) was tough, but there was a point in the race where I didn’t know if I was going to make it up one of the hills,” Jefferson said. “I am elated though to have won. It was definitely worth the trip and getting up so early in the morning.”

Jefferson, who competed collegiately at the University of Maryland, toured the city of Wheeling in a solid time of 1 hour, 25 minutes, 7 seconds. She actually finished 16th overall.

It was in the second half of the race where Jefferson made her mark and pulled away from Union Local grad and West Liberty distance runner Hannah Kemp, who finished second in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 42 seconds.

“Around halfway, I thought, ‘I can do this,'” Jefferson said. “I could see (Kemp) going up the hill from miles three through five. I was pretty much by myself most of the race.”

Pretty impressive when you consider that Jefferson had been battling a nagging hamstring issue, which is why her schedule had been left open for Memorial Day weekend.

“I started to feel better and had been training, so I thought let’s give it a shot,” Jefferson explained.

Jefferson, who is a 38-year-old mother of three, is no stranger to winning half marathon titles. Just a few months ago, she won a race Virginia Beach and she also won a race Williamsburg, Va. in February.

“I had never won one on a course this difficult though,” Jefferson said. “This was by far the toughest race I’ve done.”

While Kemp was second, Jenny Brewer finished third on the female side with a time of just under 90 minutes.

Tammy Slusser and Katie Kota rounded out the top five in the female portion of the event with times of 1:38:44 and 1:43.32, respectively.