Non-elite wins Grandma’s Marathon

Boniface Kongin won Saturday’s Grandma’s Marathon in 2:11:56, but he wasn’t wearing an elite bib. Kongin, known during the race as number 7110, surprised spectators by running away from the field at 2:06 pace. The Duluth News Tribune reports that he slowed dramatically by the end of the race, but had enough of a gap to hold off second.

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Kongin won the Pittsburgh Marathon in early May with a time of 2:10:34 and was second at the 2018 Twin Cities Marathon. The runner is from Iten, Kenya. Second place went to Andrew Colley in 2:12:13 and third place to Herbert Okuti in 2:13:01.

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In the women’s results Nell Rojas took the title in 2:28:06, a shocking three-minute personal best. Rojas ran her debut marathon in December at the California International Marathon in 2:31:23, coming from a triathlon, OCR and track background. She was a track athlete at Northern Arizona University. Rojas’ time smashes the Olympic qualification standard and is within the qualifying window. She will certainly be a contender at the 2020 trials, which will run on February 29, 2020.

Nell is the daughter for former 15,000m world record holder Ric Rojas.

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Second place went to Margaret Njuguna in 2:33:12 and third place to Sophie Seward in 2:33:21.