ANCHORAGE - A pair of Anchorage runners and former UAA student-athletes swept both the overall men's and women's titles at the 34th annual Mayor's Marathon and Half Marathon presented by ConocoPhillips today, as Jerry Ross claimed the men's crown and Esther Jurasek ran to her second women's title in three seasons.
A field of 3,838 runners registered for the event, which is co-sponsored by the Municipality of Anchorage's Park & Recreation and the University of Alaska Anchorage.
As the top Alaskan finishers, both Ross and Jurasek will receive a pair of round-trip tickets to Honolulu courtesy of Hawaiian Vacations.
Participating in his first Mayor's Marathon race, Ross crossed the finish line with a winning time of 2 hours, 30 minutes and 47.6 seconds. Ross, who placed 25th in the Boston Marathon earlier this year, won by a margin of 8 minutes 3.9 seconds over second-place finisher Matther Lavine (2:38:33.7) of Crystal Lake, Ill. Justin Gillette of Niles, Mich., placed third in 2:40:51.0.
Jurasek, who claimed the 2005 title and finished runner-up last year, recorded her best time in four Mayor's Marathon outings by clocking a 3:01:03.5. Melissa Gillette, the wife of men's third-place finisher Justin Gillete, placed second in 3:03:49.0, while Juli Morse-Stump of Pullman, Wash., took third in 3:13:50.7.
The men's half marathon title went to Gene Mitchell of Highland Heights, Ohio, who posted a winning time of 1:13:15. Reza Mohammadpour, also from Highland Heights, was second (1:17:28.2) and Dustin Hawes of Anchorage finished third (1:19:21.1).
Soldotna's Ari Anna Goldstein won the women's half marathon with a time of 1:25:33.2, followed by Debbie Cropper (Anchorage) in second (1:32:23.4) and Larrell Lockard (Anchorage) in third (1:34:04.8).
David Bondi of Anchorage won the men's five-miler in 29:40.3 while Meghan Gauntt of Mickleton, N.J., was the women's five-miler champion in 38:39.5. The boys' 1.6-mile youth cup winner was Jack Parke (Anchorage) in 12:37.8 and Robin Stramp (Anchorage) was the girls' youth cup champ in 14:26.8.
Helamans Army won the marathon relay event in the time of 2:45:09.3.
Today's races were run under cloudy skies and cool temperatures.
