The pouring rain early Saturday morning in Onset turned out to be a bit of a blessing for the 12th Annual Gleason Family YMCA 5K.

The weather prompted organizers to push the start of the race back an hour from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., and because of that, officials said they received an extra 50 or so applicants prior to the race.

“We were a little worried about the weather, but people were registering for the race right up until 10 minutes before the start,” said JoAnn Watson, the former Marketing and Development Director and current worker/volunteer at the Gleason Family YMCA. "We ended up with over 200 runners. It worked in our favor,” she said.

“The push-back really benefitted us a lot,” said Smokey Harrison, a race organizer with JB’s Road Race Management, who helped put on the race. “I’m glad the weather broke for them. It was really nasty this morning.”

The race started out in between Marc Anthony’s and the Pier View Restaurant on Onset Avenue, and ran in a figure-eight winding through the streets on Onset Village, finishing in the parking lot beside Onset Beach.

The overall winner, Erik Gall, 23, who is originally from Wareham but now resides in Plymouth, said he wasn’t expecting to run so well.

“That’s a lot better than I finished last year,” said Gall, who added that his race of 17:56 was the first time he had finished a 5K in under 20 minutes. “I really didn’t expect that at all.”

Caleb Gartner, 11, of Falmouth was the winner in the 12-and-under division with a time of 21:26, and Anne Preisig of Cumberland, R.I., was the top female finisher with a time of 19:35.  Lexi Robbins, 8, of E. Wareham was the female winner in the 12-and-under at 34:15.  Brad Cornish, 63, of Wareham, won the 60-69 division for the men with a time of 25:02, and Tina Varzeas, 60, of Mattapoisett won the 60-69 division for the women at 24:52.  In the 70-plus division, Kevin O'Farrell, 75, of Plymouth won with a time of 35:42, and in second was Gino McCarthy, 83, of Plymouth at 48:03.

Runners and walkers alike took part in the race, including a group of six members of the Gleason YMCA who ran the race as a part of a 15-week fitness challenge they’d done through the Y.

“It’s one of the things we said we were going to do, even though [the fitness challenge] ended,” said Cheryl Bushnell, who’s originally from Wareham but who now resides in Rochester. “It went really well.”