By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

LINCOLN - Marisa Ryan, a third-year medical student at Boston University, hasn’t had much free time lately.
On Sunday morning, though, the 24-year-old from Arlington, Mass., had just enough time to emerge the winner of the 10th annual Rhody 5K Road Race, hosted by Twin River.
Making one final surge with a tenth of a mile remaining, Ryan broke away Mariko Holbrook of Medfield, Mass., and cruised to the individual title, finishing with a time of 17 minutes, 22 seconds. Holbrook, 27, was second at 17:25.
Ryan, a former All-American at BU during her undergraduate years, was running in only her second race since taking a year off due to her demanding workload.
“I’m just sort of getting back into racing. I didn’t know how I would do,” she said. ‘I really didn’t know about the race until (Saturday) morning. It’s local, my little sister goes to Brown University. It was a really fun race”
Ryan hung with a pack of about four women through the beginning stages of the race and passed the mile mark at about 5:30. She gradually began to pull away from the pack with only Holbrook responding.
“The beginning I was sort of second-guessing,” she said. “After (the first mile), I warmed up a little bit.”
Ryan, who owns a personal best of 9:12 for the 3K distance, utilized her speed in breaking away from Holbrook just past three miles and was all alone by the time she reached the finish line on the dog track of the Lincoln gaming facility. Placing third in the race was Tamie Robie, 34, of Milford, Mass., with a time of 17:47.
“I didn’t really know how much longer there was in the race until I saw the three-mile marker. Then I knew,” Ryan said. “That’s when I figured I might as well go for it; see if I have any track speed in me from a year ago. It was kind of different. I finished a race on a running track before, but never a dog track.”
Rounding out the top five finishers in the race was former Providence College standout Stephanie Reilly in fourth (17:49) and Meghan Lynch of Sommerville, Mass., placing fifth (17:57).
Former Mount St. Charles All-Stater and PC runner Ashley Jensen was the best among local finishers. The 25-year-old Jensen, who resides in Lincoln, was 57th at 21:04.  North Smithfield’s Amanda Smith was 95th in the field of 286 women, with a time of 23:43.