'Dream' Santa Rosa Marathon draws runners from near and far

Under a gray sky with temperature in the low 60s, runners looped up and down the streets and trails of Santa Rosa in a race that could qualify them for bigger aspirations.

The 2015 Santa Rosa Marathon drew numerous familiar runners as well as athletes from various corners of the world to the local confines of the course early Sunday morning.

The top overall spot for the full marathon was earned by Javier Madrid, a 25-year-old runner from Yucaipa. His time of 2:26.50 was a few minutes slower than last year’s best time, but he said he couldn’t be happier with his race on Sunday.

Everything from the weather to the layout of the course was exactly what he could have hoped for, he said. It was perfect.

“It was a runner’s dream,” Madrid said. “The conditions, the course with its rolling hills and steady slopes were absolutely perfect.”

The Santa Rosa Marathon began at Julliard Park and steadily looped through downtown Santa Rosa before winding its way down the Santa Rosa Creek Trail, cutting through DeLoach Vineyard and Winery, and circling northeast down Piner Road. The final loop bought the finishers back to Julliard Park.

“It’s really interesting to see my town as a tourist attraction for other people,” half marathon runner and Santa Rosa native Karen Frindell Teuscher said.

Teuscher, a Santa Rosa resident, finished with a time of 1:45.03. Despite fighting an illness before Sunday’s half marathon, she said she was using the course as her chance to “get back into the swing of things.”

“This is my training course,” she said. “It’s great to be out in a place that I recognize. There’s some tight turns and a dirt part that slows you down, but it’s absolutely beautiful.”

This course was exactly what drew runners like Madrid to Santa Rosa, he said.

“I saw it online and immediately signed up,” Madrid said. “It’s a quick course so I was hoping for a big PR and a win. Everything just turned out really well for me.”

Madrid can use Sunday’s race time to qualify for the Boston Marathon, as signups for the 2016 race open in about a month’s time.

Caroline Boller of Temucula won the women’s race in a ruling after the race’s conclusion. Boller crossed the finish line second to Wendy Jennings of Huntington Beach. But Jennings, an experienced distance runner who competed in the Boston Marathon the past three years, was later disqualified for failure to register at one or more of the various timing spots along the course. Boller, who crossed the finish line in 2:45.13, was elevated to first place.

Mario Fraioli was the first half marathon runner to cross the finish line with a time of 1:15.22. Kari-Anne Samuelson was the first female finished at 1:23.06. The top three females to finish the half marathon finished within a minute of each other as it was a foot race in the last stretch of Downtown Santa Rosa.