The 16th annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon drew about 30,000 runners for full and half-marathons in San Diego last Sunday, including 38 participants from Lemon Grove.
Jeff Galford, 30, was the fastest marathoner from Lemon Grove, finishing the 26.2 mile-course ending at Petco Park in 3 hours, 42 minutes and 37 seconds. Fernando Marquez, 28, with a time of 3:58:08, and Chris Penta, 33, with a time of 4:37:16, round out the top three locally.
[Click here to see all race results.]
About 8,000 runners—10 from Lemon Grove—entered the 26-mile, 385-yard marathon, with 57 percent of the field female and 32 percent from outside California, according to organizers. The field is among the 10 largest in the nation.
Simon Njoroge finished in first place with an unofficial time of two hours, 15 minutes. Natalia Sergeeva, clocked at 2:35:05, was the women's winner, according to unofficial results at competitor.com.
The half-marathon drew a field of about 22,000 from all 50 states and 30 nations, organizers said. Twenty-eight in the half-marathon were from Lemon Grove, led by Logan Derr, 28, as the top local man (1:42:56), and Judy Galindo, 31, as the top local woman (2:05:25).
Bernard Koech of Kenya finished the half-marathon in 58 minutes and 41 seconds. He bested two-time defending champion and 2004 Olympic marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi. Edna Kiplagat topped the women's half-marathon division with an unofficial time of 1:08:56.
The event also included a wheelchair marathon, but no participants from Lemon Grove were listed.
—City News Service contributed to this report.
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