The Air Force Marathon Team had a good day at the Winter Series III race.

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VIDEO: Interview with short-course winner Joe Gray ** Start of the 10-miler ** Start of the 5-miler

Mountain runner Joe Gray enjoys a technical course, but the snowy five miles in the Winter Series III race challenged him.

"I think there were some places where snowshoes would have worked pretty well," Gray said.

About 600 runners lined up on the Santa Fe Trail south of Monument for the third race in the Winter Series. The out-and-back course included a four-inch blanket of snow with the consistency of brown sugar.

If the conditions weren’t tough enough, James Burns, the leader in the Winter Series short-course standings, provided some tough competition for Gray, a six-time member of the U.S. Mountain Running team and the reigning Club Cross Country National Champion.

The two battled shoulder-to-shoulder for four miles before Gray found solid footing in the slush and pulled away to win in 27 minutes, 52 seconds. Burns, the 2013 Winter Series short-course champion, galloped home just a few strides behind in 27:58.

“We were coming into the last mile and we were running a pretty good clip," Gray said. “I tried to get away from him a couple of times and I just couldn’t, I was slipping. There was one good route (through the slush) and James had a good eye for finding it. Eventually I was able to get a little bit of a gap with the wind at our face – it felt like we were running up hill in a sense. I just kind of held on to that lead until the finish and got away with the ‘W.’”

Gray will compete at the USA Track and Field Cross Country Nationals in Boulder next Saturday.

In the women’s 5-miler, Shiela Geere, 50, won for the third time in three starts. Geere finished in 35:52, setting a new age-group record (50-54) along the way. Hannah McIntyre, 18, was second in 38:51, followed by Thea Ramsey, 16, in 39:40.

In the 10-mile long-course race, Tyler Dimson broke through to take his first win in the Winter Series (he was second overall in the 2013 long-course series.) Dimson, an Air Force Academy sophomore who runs on the Air Force Marathon team, finished in 1:10:58.

“We knew the course was going to be tough,” Dimson said. “But we had to tough it out. “

Andy Boyle,17, the series leader, was second in 1:11:55, followed by Ryan Silva (30, 1:12:08.)

In the women's race, Stephanie Wurtz, 31, won for the third time in as many Winter Series starts. Wurtz finished in 1:18:47, followed by Melissa Bay (38, 1:20:24) and Shannon Meredith (43, 1:22:51).