Runners from Kenya and Peru Win Individual Men's and Women's Division
Near perfect weather greeted a field of approximately 4,000 runners for the 3rd Annual Road Runner Akron Marathon & Team Relays. It was the largest number of runners in the race's three-year history.

Charles Kamindo from Kenya won the individual women's marathon with a time of 2:18:48. Maria Portilla from Peru won the individual women's marathon with a time of 2:39:09. Kamindo and Portilla both set new course records. The course record for men was 2:21:59 set in 2003 by Kenyan Jonah Rono and the women's course record of 2:40:17 was set in 2004 by Elena Orleva of Russia.

Individual marathoners totaled 869, which was 22 percent of the total field of approximately 4,000 runners. That was up from last year's total of 863 marathon runners. By far, the biggest increase in registrations for the 2005 race was in the five-person relay, plus registrations for the new, two-person relay. Last year, 2,409 relay runners competed compared to 3,086 this year. Team relays are a full marathon distance race (42.2K/26.2M) divided into five legs (10K, 5K, 10K, 5K and 12.2K) or two legs (25K and 17.2K). Additionally, approximately 2,000 children participated in the Kid's Fun Run, a 1K run along the Ohio & Erie Canal.

The winning five-person relay team members were Ryan Desgrange, James Jurcevich, Josh Ordway, Aaron Rowe and Matthew Wehrman from team "Columbus Running Company" with a time of 2:12:47. The winning female five-person team included Alexandra Alves, Anjeanete Arabian, Melissa Converse, Marlene Persson and Michelle Rupe from team "Running Goddesses" with a time of 2:42:58. The winning mixed team was "SupportBHunt" with a time of 2:20:06. The team members were Adam Bray, Colleen Harrison, Dave Mooney, James Sjostrom and Rick Williams.

The new two-person relay was won by "First Energy Team 8" with a time of 2:58:22. Team members were Mick Albanese and Paul Carris. The winning female team, "Cougars", completed the course in 3:14:15. Team members were Karen Howard-Goss and Cheri Triner-Napho. "Breaking Wind" was the winning mixed team with a time of 2:58:11. Team members were Jeff Day and Yi Huang.

The third Road Runner Akron Marathon and Team Relays started near the National Inventors Hall of Fame and concluded in Olympic fashion inside the Canal Park Stadium in downtown Akron. A complete list of race results will be available online at www.akronmarathon.org. Results are also posted on the RUNOHIO Results section at: http://www.runohio.com