The Harbour city shone today as 33,000 runners took part in 4 events (4km, 9km, Half-marathon & Marathon) for the Sydney Running Festival, 
sponsored by Blackmores. The Sydney Marathon, recently awarded the IAAF Silver Label Road Race, lived up to the new expectations with strong international fields in both the Mens & Womens events.
The course record was broken in the Mens Marathon 
by Ethiopian Gebo Gameda (2:11:18), who beat home compatriot Seboka Tola (2:11:48) and Kenyan Benjamin Kiptoo (2:12:08).
The womens race saw another course record by another Ethiopian runner as the East African nation capped off a great day of racing in the marathon. Berukait Eshetu finished in 2:29:42 taking more then 3mins off the record set last year, which itself broke a 12yr old mark (2:38) from 2001. In a fast race 2nd place Kenyan Jane Kiptoo (2:32:08) & 3rd Japanese runner Yuka Yano (2:33:19) capped off a great event. Read about last year’s 2013 Sydney Running Festival here.
Wheelchair champion Kurt Fearnely won his 10th Sydney Marathon 
with a strong return to long distance racing. After a year focusing on the shorter track events Sydney marked the start of a big marathon campaign including the Chicago marathon in Oct & his favourite New York City Marathon on Sun 2nd November.
In the half-marathon Brad Milosevic won in a blistering 1:06:47 while Australian representative Jeremy Roff (28:07) won the very popular Bridge run. It was great
to see so many people enjoying themselves, with many dressed up, and so many young kids taking part with mum & dad and learning how fun the big events can be. Across all 4 events 33,000+ runners ran across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge on a great day for recreational running. The new Silver Label for the Sydney Marathon follows on from the Gold Coast being awarded Australia’s first Gold Label Road Race for the Gold Coast Marathon in July. It’s great to see Australian events are on the rise, as is the popularity of running.
Congrats to all the #OUTFITrunners who took part in the 2014 Sydney Running Festival. There were some brilliant PB’s & great runs (too many to mention everyone) but special note to Gwen, Zoe, Jess, Kelly, Brett, Daran & Martin. For any advice on training or planning for future events contact us for running coaching or personal training options.
Next Sunday we’ll be blogging about the Berlin marathon (the 4th World Major for 2014) & following the efforts of Tirfi Tsegaye & Shalane Flanagan in the womens race while Dennis Kimetto, Tsegaye Kebede & Geoffrey Kamworor (Kipsang) line up in a potential world record shoot out.
Enjoy your running!
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