This past Sunday the Freescale Austin Marathon was run in pretty much ideal weather conditions.

After numbers were tallied, it turns out that this is the largest marathon in Texas. Combined with the runners in the half marathon, the total number reached over 10,000 runners. There were some concerns by runners before the marathon that it would not be as fast as the downhill point-to-point that the marathon has been in previous years.

The times overall were quite fast; and whether it was due to the weather or pre-race jitters about slow times, the course turned out just fine. Many of the runners mentioned that it was much more scenic this year, and the crowds cheering them on was a nice sidelight to running 26.2 miles.

There was a good number of runners from San Marcos and Kyle entered in both races. Those runners from San Marcos that completed the marathon included Masato Aoshima (3:31:45), Liesela Austin (5:14:49), Elizabeth Black-Wills (3:50:10), Deborah Bumgardner (5:00:29), Stacy Clayton (5:59:34) and Marcella Duran (4:24:03). Also running was David Hamilton in a good 3:07:25, Paul Hernandez, Sr. (4:48:33), Bonnie Holmes (4:06:56), Robert Hughes (3:34:29), Jennifer Lagrange (7:00:44), Shana Lenz (4:25:48) and Jennifer Lozano (5:15:29). Completing the San Marcos entries were Mindy Martinez (5:09:49), Laura Mason (6:03:20), Lori McNabb (3:34:29 and first place in her age division [45-49] in the Distance Challenge series of races), Jeanie Mize (3:44:43), Brandi Montgomery (5:50:49), Conrado Ordonez (3:28:04), Andria Parker (7:00:44), Sean Redeker (5:09:05), Kimberly Schaerdel (5:15:28) and Karen Schwartz (5:59:33).

When you tally up the numbers, the women outnumbered the men by a score of 18 to 7. San Marcos is looking better in the fitness category, and it seems the women are in the lead in this matter.

For San Marcos runners in the half marathon, we had a couple of fast runners, with Doug Framke turning in a 1:18:59 time and Tim Bayliss running a 1:24:05 time. Other local runners included Sherry Blue (3:07:49), Erica Galicia (2:15:04), Gina Goebel (2:10:30), Magen Gray (1:32:41), Tonya Huston (2:10:27), and Darrell Kurten in a quick 1:26:49 time. Other runners included Annie Lozano (1:59:25), Daniel McFatter (1:42:49), Doug Mudd (1:29:41), Briana Parramore (1:48:02), Gabriel Ramon (1:47:09), Mandy Roberts (1:54:11), Kerith Vara (2:05:36) and Tony Walker (1:34:57).

For the half, the women still outnumbered the men; but it was a much closer tally by 8 to 7.

Marathon finishers from Kyle included David Davila in a good 2:47:28 time and Keith Barber (3:19:20), Angela Bernal (3:53:59), Jeffery Fincher (4:22:29), Leslie Foster (4:35:24), Marival Garza (5:06:25), Omar Gutierrez (4:32:44), and Dan Keitz (5:05:43). Other Kyle runners were Silvia Lake (5:44:58), Greg McCulley (3:50:30), Teresa Medina (6:03:18), Lauren Meyers (5:21:19), and Autumn Mohon (3:54:06). Kim Montague (5:11:15), Melissa Odom (5:28:02), Jackie Paap (5:41:44), Rebekah Ramirez (4:24:05), Todd Reay (5:40:00), and Joshua Whitfield (4:59:22) completed the Kyle runners’ list with the women outnumbering the men by a count of 12 to 9.

Kyle runners in the half-marathon distance included Elva Brown (2:04:07), Mary Chimelak (2:10:33), Erin Golden (2:08:31), Terence Hall (2:15:07), and Michelle Lewis (2:38:09). Other runners included Talmedge Matts (2:10:16), Lisa McCulley (2:19:16), Erika Park (1:49:01), Rene Ramirez (1:55:41), Christie Smith (2:43:45) and Tim Spong (2:34:52). The women again outnumbered the men by a count of 7 to 4.

If you have never entered or run a long-distance race, the marathon is usually considered the ultimate test for a runner. Longer distances such as 50K, 50-mile and even 100-mile races are run, but the marathon distance of 26.2 miles remains the one challenge for a runner to try to achieve that is in reach of most runners. The most important fact is that the runner finished the marathon distance. After that, the fact that the runner ran the entire way is next; and if the runner could run under four hours, they are usually in the upper half of all the runners in the race. Congratulations to all of the area runners that ran in the Freescale Marathon and Half Marathon, as they represented the Central Texas area well.

Don’t forget the Moe’s Better Half Marathon and CASA “Speak Up For Kids” 5K on March 11th out at the Tanger Outlet Center. Entry forms can be found at the San Marcos Activity Center and the Chamber of Commerce office. Let’s see a good turnout of local runners at these races right here in San Marcos. Enter either race, and enjoy a fit start to a Sunday morning.