Roanoke, Va., June 2, 2010 – Cool weather and an improved mostly-level route along the Roanoke Greenway aided runners in the 2010 Appalachian Power Festival Run in Roanoke this year. More than 570 runners participated in the run Saturday, May 29.
 
The annual event draws strong competitors and those just wanting to achieve a personal goal, or just have fun. Entries this year represented elementary schools, grandparents running with grandchildren and a team running from the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

Among the serious competitors, 5K runners saw improvements over last year’s times. David Angell improved on his 2009 time by nearly 20 seconds to win the overall men’s race with a time of 15:35. The women’s 5K winner was Shannon Summerlin with a time of 19:21, more than a minute faster than last year’s winner. 10K winners included Tim Smith, who defended his overall men’s title with a time of 31:59, and April Snow, who won the overall women’s title with a time of 44:11.

More than 40 Appalachian Power employees helped make the run happen this year. Some cheered on runners on the route while they controlled traffic while others helped with the awards celebration.
The Appalachian Power Festival Run is just one of the many events that are part of the Festival in the Park in downtown Roanoke.
 
Appalachian Power provides electricity to 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.         
 
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