A first-time marathoner at Sunday’s Mother Road Marathon not only won the race, but broke a course record in the process.
Andrew Webb, 22, of Webb City, Mo., finished the 26.2-mile course on Route 66 from Commerce, Okla., to Joplin, Mo., in 2 hours, 46 minutes, 4 seconds, according the Joplin Globe. It broke the record of 2:51:57 by Ryan Kramer, of Des Moines, Iowa, in 2010.
Webb, who had competed on the Missouri Southern cross country team until March, had never competed in a race longer than 10 kilometers before Sunday. However, it seems he excels at the longer distances.
“I quit running for Missouri Southern,” Webb said. “There was about a three month period where I wasn’t running at all. My mom called me and said the Joplin Road Runners were having a meeting, so I attended it in June. They gave me this workout schedule. I did everything on it, and obviously it worked out.”
Webb won the race by two minutes over George Bene, 43, of Joplin, who also was running at a course-record pace.
Krystal Schwartz, 24, a soldier at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, was the top women’s finisher at 3:28:19.
The Globe said about 700 runners participated in the annual event, which also included half-marathon and five-kilometer races.
About 640 people ran in the event last year, so the Mother Road Marathon saw about a 10 percent increase in participation in 2012.