New London — Mario Vazquez crossed the finish line on a warm Saturday morning and kept running.

He turned left and briefly jogged down the boardwalk at Ocean Beach before stopping to cool off after winning the 62nd John & Jessie Kelley Half-Marathon.

Maybe Vazquez wanted to make sure that Alex Norstrom didn’t catch him like he did with about 1.5 miles to go in last year’s race, forcing him to settle for second place.

Leading for nearly the entire 13.1 miles in the rematch, Vazquez kept looking back to check for his friend and defending men’s champion.

“I was looking for him the whole race,” said Vazquez, who lives in Farmington. “At no point did I know I had it. You can’t take a win until you win.”

Vazquez won by a comfortable margin, posting a time of 1 hour, 10 minutes, 28 seconds while Norstrom, who’s from Glastonbury, placed second in 1:12:00. Tyler Raymond of Rockville finished third in 1:12:08. All three are members of the Hartbeat Track Club.

Foggy and cloudy in the hours leading up to the 8 a.m. start, the sun broke through shortly after the roughly 1,000 runners took off.

Vazquez fought through the challenging conditions to win the Kelley race for the first time.

Once he conquered mile 10, which is hilly and without any shade, he knew he was in good shape.

“I’m tired and hot,” Vazquez said. “It was hard. I just went for it.”

Vazquez surged in front early on. But Norstrom, a three-time Kelley race champion, stuck with him.

They had a conversation before Vazquez started to pull away.

“Alex was with me for a couple of miles and we were talking a little bit,” Vazquez said. “We were just trying to get our mind off what we were doing.”

The fact that Vazquez out-battled Norstrom made the victory a bit more satisfying.

“This is amazing,” Vazquez said. “I look up to him a lot. He’s one of my idols. I’ve learned a lot from him about distance running. I appreciate him a lot.”

In the women’s race, Hayley Collins, a 25-year-old from Tolland, took command at the start and cruised to her second straight victory. She finished in 1:23:47 while Ashley Dana of Middlefield (1:28:24) and Alayna Bigalbal of Colchester (1:28:53) took second and third, respectively.

“People were saying that I was mainly the first female the whole time,” Collins said. “I really didn’t see anybody else around me. I tried to go with some other guys but they were way too fast.”

Collins, who ran at Marist College, finished 11th overall in the field, 44 seconds out of a spot in the top 10.

She has competed in the Kelley race about every year since graduating from Tolland High School in 2017.

“I love the atmosphere of this race and I do it with my dad and a couple of his friends,” Collins said. “It’s always a good race.”

Both Collins and Vazquez are training to compete in Hartford in October, the former in the marathon and latter in the half-marathon. It will be Collins’ third marathon.

Collins comes from a running family. Her father John ran Saturday coming off a knee replacement.

“It’s just a part of me,” Collins said of running. “My dad started me running when I was little and I just kept going. And I love it. As long as I keep liking it, I’m going to keep doing it.”

Other local finishers in the top 50 overall include: Vikash Malik of Niantic, 15th, 1:28:07; Jared Dybas of Groton, 16th, 1:28:19; Teddy Nosiku of North Stonington, 26th, 1:29:38; Evaline Ouellette of Colchester, 37th, 1:32:25; Dan McKenzie of Mystic, 39th, 1:33:33; Nicole Leblanc of Colchester, 43rd, 1:34:27; and Steven deCastro of Pawcatuck, 45th, 1:35:19.

g.keefe@theday.com