Eight area runners finish at Illinois Marathon
With the looming threat a rain and miserable conditions early on in the race, eight Sentinel area marathoners bravely faced the elements to finish the Illinois Marathon's 26.2 mile course a week ago today.
Alison Jones, from St. Joseph, circumvented the flat terrain, Boston Marathon qualifier course in three hours, thirty minutes and three seconds, just 36 seconds faster than her 2017 time. This year, she placed second out of 53 runners in the women's 40-44 and was the 39th female competitor to finish the race.
Last year, Jones won the women's 40-44 division title and was 32nd overall finisher in the 10K race.
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Veteran distance runner Mike Tankersley turned in the area's next best time stopping the clock at 3:39:38. Out of 696 men completing the race, the St. Joseph resident was the two hundred and thirty-third male runner to finish and was 21st in the 50-54 year-old group.
Tankersley's finish was an improvement on his 2018 time of 3:44:51 on the same course.
After competing in the half marathon race the past two installments of Champaign-Urbana's largest running event, Doug Weaver, also from St. Joseph, was the next Sentinel area runner to complete the race. Ninth out of 36 marathoners aged 60-64, he finished 364th overall at 3:48.
Also finishing the 26.6 mile course was Royal's Jeff Rohde, who was 781st overall (4:37:58), Mark Shoviak (677th overall, 4:23:44) from St. Joseph, Valeria Rohde (900th, 5:02:39) from Royal, Brian Beck (906th overall, 5:03:22) and Amber Davis, from St. Joseph, rounding out the group at 1052nd overall with a time of 5:55:25.
