By Miles Layton

Because I didn’t see any coverage of the Athens Ohio Marathon within the local media in Southeast Ohio, I thought I’d write a quick story about the Buckeye State’s oldest marathon that takes place in Athens, a picturesque college town in Southeast Ohio — home of Ohio University.

Nearly a thousand people from across Ohio and surrounding states competed in Sunday’s race, which included the marathon and half marathon, with a nearly 50-year record being broken in the women’s marathon.  

Moreover, volunteers from near and far support the race by providing water at the stops and keeping the rail trail clean. When my kids were attending Athens High School, they volunteered alongside their Bulldogs’ cross country/track teammates to make the race a great experience for the runners, same as Vinton County High School’s formidable long distance runners.

And I’ve run the half marathon at least twice – one of my favorite races. It’s a beautiful course that captures the essence of Athens from its start downtown on the bricks by East Union Street, through the West Side neighborhood to the Hockhocking-Adena Bikeway – up and back – to end in front of a cheering crowd at the Ohio University track.  

Perhaps some folks don’t consider this race as newsworthy as a campus protest, but I think it deserves some ink because it leaves lasting memories for anyone who’s ever run, volunteered or cheered at the Athens Ohio Marathon. 

ATHENS, Ohio — Ideal late-April weather and a deep field of competitors combined Sunday to make the 56th running of the Athens Marathon one of the most memorable in the event’s history, with a course record in the women’s full marathon, strong Boston Qualifier numbers, and the second-highest finisher total ever recorded.

Siena Morlatt of Blacksburg, Va., crossed the finish line of the 56th running of the Athens Ohio Marathon in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 43 seconds — shattering a women’s course record that had stood since the Carter administration, becoming the first woman in the event’s history to break three hours, and doing it on a morning that felt, by every measure, built for fast running.

“That record had stood since 1979, and to see it fall — and fall the way it did — was really something special,” race director Michael Owen said.

Iris Black had set the old mark of 3:00:36 in 1979. For nearly half a century, it held. Morlatt didn’t just clip it — she finished nearly five minutes clear.

The Kind of Morning Runners Dream About

If Morlatt’s performance was the story of the day, the weather was its silent co-author.

Temperatures at the gun were in the mid-40s — very nice! Highs never pushed past the mid-50s. Partly sunny skies, a whisper of a headwind that officials said barely registered in the final times. For a race that runs flat and straight along the Hockhocking-Adena Bikeway — a paved rail trail tracing the Hocking River between Athens and Nelsonville — it was, as Owen put it, about as good as you could ask for.

“A little bit of a breeze, but nothing that was going to slow anyone down,” he said. “It was a great day for running.”

The numbers bore that out. Twenty-eight runners finished the full marathon under three hours. In some years, Owen noted, that figure has been as low as three. Two men broke 2:30:00, a threshold cleared in only a handful of the race’s 56 editions. Of the 224 full marathon finishers, 44 — nearly one in five — posted a Boston Qualifier time.

“Times were faster across the board and provided more depth at those milestone points in both the full and the half marathon,” Owen said.

Combined with 722 half marathon finishers, the day’s total of 946 finishers was the second-highest in the event’s history and the strongest showing since 2018.

For results, click this link to the race’s webpage.

Hunter Moore of Westerville, Ohio, won the men’s marathon with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 37 seconds. Owen Stewart of Milford, Ohio, won the men’s half marathon with a time of one hour, 15 minutes and 49 seconds, and Jenny Brewer of St. Mary’s, WVa, won the women’s half marathon with a time of one hour, 21 minutes, 90 seconds.

Story’s photo comes courtesy of the Athens Marathon.

Flat, Fast, and Familiar

Part of what draws runners to Athens each April is the course itself — deceptively simple by design, genuinely fast by reputation.

The race begins near the corner of College and Union streets, in the shadow of Ohio University’s College Green, before working through the Westside neighborhood and onto the rail trail where, as more than one regular competitor has noted, the race truly begins. From there, it’s the river and the tree line and the steady rhythm of the bikeway, out toward Nelsonville and back.

It’s a Boston Qualifier, and runners who are chasing a BQ time know it.

This flat and fast course has its own quiet character, too — a bridge over the Hocking, farmland, the particular stillness of a southeastern Ohio morning in late April. Along the way, runners pass a two-story white farmhouse, barns, livestock pens. There are chickens, turkeys, a few donkeys. It is not, in other words, a race that feels like it could happen anywhere — you’re not running around some suburb or city street.

More Than 300 Reasons It Happens at All

No race of this scope runs itself, and the Athens Marathon has always depended on a volunteer infrastructure that reflects the community hosting it.

This year, more than 300 people were on the course Sunday — representing over 17 volunteer groups, including high school track and cross country teams, the Ohio University Track and Field and Cross Country programs, OU student clubs, and a range of community organizations. The race will distribute more than $17,500 in donations to the participating groups.

“A huge cast of volunteer groups makes this marathon possible,” Owen said. “We are proud to pledge over $17,500 in donations to the groups involved.”

1968 and Still Running

This marathon is the oldest continuously operating marathon in the state — founded in 1968, run every year since, its early records preserved at the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at Ohio University.

Owen, who took over as race director in recent years, said the longevity comes down to something harder to quantify than logistics.

“There have been many organizational changes over the years, and we are thankful to the past organizers for keeping the race going through all of them,” he said. “I think it’s a testament to the small but mighty running community in Athens and Southeastern Ohio.”

He paused on that point.

“We are all very proud of our city, our community, and this race, and we love to show it off each April,” Owen said. “As the newest race director, my goal is to continue the event’s legacy while looking for ways to improve the participant experience.”

On a morning when a 46-year-old record fell, when nearly a thousand runners finished under skies that couldn’t have been scripted better, and when olive-leaf wreaths were placed on the heads of champions in a small Ohio city that has been doing this longer than anyone else in the state — that legacy looked, for one more year, very much intact.

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