Beautiful weather and enthusiastic crowds made for a nice weekend for runners participating in the Rochester Marathonevents. At least the weather was nice for spectators, it may have been a little warm for marathoners.
The marathon includes a 5k, a half marathon and the full marathon, with about 3,000 people taking part overall.
Peg Garland was one of the volunteers for this event. She’s also a former athletic trainer at the University of Rochester, and she sees a lot of value in events like this.
“I think it’s great for Rochester, this is exercise, that’s what people need now, get out and do something, I’m not a runner, I do bike, but I think it’s a great outlet for people,” she told WXXI News.
Among the half-marathoners, Bryan Reilly says the event was really well run.
“Considering how many people there are, it’s really well organized, everybody just seemed to be where they needed to be when, not a lot of confusion, nobody was really asking questions, this after-party’s awesome."
The marathon is a fundraiser that benefits the American Diabetes Association.
The course for the marathon was changed a couple of years ago, and it now includes parts of northwest Rochester and Irondequoit.
John Schnitter of Dansville won the men's marathon with a time of 2:27:20, according to the Democrat & Chronicle which notes that Brianna Deming was the top female finisher in the marathon, breaking the course record by almost 10 minutes with her time of 2:55:26. The 25-year old from Morristown, New Jersey also won last year's race.
