About 300 runners descended on downtown Belleville, Illinois, last weekend for the sixth annual Belleville Main Street Marathon and Half Marathon, which was held Saturday, September 24.

FULL MARATHON WINNERS
The top three male finishers of the full marathon were local residents, with Jason Seger, 45, of Maryville placing first with a time of 2:59:11. Jeremiah Gibbons, 42, of St. Louis placed second with a time of 3:00:05, and Ben Cornell, 40, of St. Louis placed third with a time of 3:14:38.

In the women’s full marathon, Mattie Carter, 26, of Greenville won with a time of 3:19:55; Jordan Lauber, 42, of St. Louis, finished in second with a time of 3:54:02 30; and Lisa Hill, 55, of Arlington, Tennessee, placed third with a time of 3:57:24.

HALF MARATHON WINNERS
In the men’s half marathon race, Jack Hunter, 44, of Arlington, Virginia, won with a time of 1:21:43; Lee Brendel, 45, of Webster Groves, Missouri, placed second with a time of 1:23:32; and Inigo Ibarra, 46, of Wildwood, Missouri, finished third with a time of 1:26:08.

In the women’s half marathon, Kristin Frisella, 26, of St. Louis won with a time of 1:40:28; Ashley Schardan 38, of Granite City, Illinois, placed second with a time of 1:47:32; and Bree Badgley, 38, Belleville finished in third with a time of 1:48:11.

Six of the full marathon finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon. The Belleville course starts downtown and stretches to the Signal Hill neighborhood to the west and the Belleville East YMCA to the east. The race is organized by the Belleville Running Club and Toolen’s Running Start.

“We added the very popular half marathon distance in 2022, which increased our registration numbers by almost double,” said Sarah West, co-director of the event. “To allow for controlled growth, we capped the half marathon at 250 and sold out two months before the race date. We are very pleased with the response to the half marathon and plan to increase the number of registrants for the 2023 event.”

Race day weather was gorgeous, with clear skies and cool temperatures at the start, although it did warm up for the second half of the marathon. More than 200 enthusiastic volunteers, a cooperative city and police force, and well-organized emergency and medical personnel made for a successful race, said race organizers and runners.

“Every year, we are blown away by the tremendous community support for our event, from the hundreds of volunteers to the many businesses and organizations who sponsor the race, to the residents who come out to cheer,” West said. “What a wonderful community we have, and that is what makes this race so great.

“We are already looking forward to the 2023 race. We attract runners from all over the United States, and this year, it appears that our event attracted even more local runners, including from the St. Louis area,” West added.