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Borrelli, Mercado win Steamtown Marathon

By Tom Robinson
Scranton Edition sports correspondent

SCRANTON -- Yolanda Mercado's official winning time in the women's division of the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon Sunday was 2:50:20.

Kevin Borrelli, 27, of Throop, runs down Washington Avenue in Scranton, on his way toward his second, consecutive championship for the Steamtown Marathon on Sunday.

Courtesy of David Yusinski / The Times Leader

Kevin Borrelli, 27, of Throop, claimed his second, consecutive victory in the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon on Sunday. Borrelli fell just a few minutes shy of his win last year with 2:25:42 this year.

Courtesy of David Yusinski / The Times Leader

Related headlines

• For Borrelli, Mercado, 26 miles end in victories
• Marathon winner runs to repeat
• Leonard, Starr win Steamtown Masters titles

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Mercado, 39, from Bayamon, Puerto Rico won by 2:48.

Kaitlin Anelauskas, 24, from Cambridge, Mass., led during the second half of the race and finished in 2:53:08.

Megan Duerring, the 2005 champion, was third in 2:58:07. She is a 33-year-old from Easton.

Jennifer Post, 36, from Mechanicsburg, was the only other woman under three hours with a finish of 2:58:50.

Danielle Walther, a 28-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., was fifth in 3:00:38.

For masters and age group winners, as well as other details from the Steamtown Marathon, continue to return to or refresh this Web page.

UPDATED: 1:55 p.m.

SCRANTON -- A total of 1,911 runners started the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon this morning out of a record number of 2,323 entries.

Race director Bill King said that typically 10-15 percent of entries do not actually participate in the race.

"You have to consider that people start registering in April," King said.

Injuries, training adjustments and other scheduling changes lead to some runners deciding not to compete.

King was hopeful that the largest-ever field would translate into a record number of finishers. There were 1,672 finishers in 2006, then 1,576 and 1,573 the last two years.

"Typically when people start, we don't have too many drop out," said King, who thought the number of finishers could approach 1,850.

King said the cool conditions were helpful.

"It's a great day," he said.

UPDATED: 1:44 p.m.

SCRANTON -- Charlene Lyford, the women's champion of the first three Steamtown Marathons, finished Sunday's race in 3:24:56.

Lyford, a 43-year-old from Greene, N.Y., won the inaugural Steamtown Marathon in 1996 in 2:52:24. She dropped her time to 2:49:37 a year later to repeat as champion.

Lyford made the run from Forest City to Scranton in 2:44:01 in 1998 for a women's record time that still stands.

UPDATED: 1:37 p.m.

SCRANTON -- Kevin Borrelli's official margin of victory in the 14th Steamtown Marathon was 41 seconds over Jeffrey McCabe.

Borrelli, 27, from Throop finished in 2:25:42 to repeat as champion.

McCabe, a 26-year-old from Exeter, finished second in 2:26:23. It was McCabe's second big finish of the year after running the Run for the Red in Stroudsburg in 2:28:56 to finish third in May.

Borrelli finished in 2:22:41 last year to win by 26 seconds.

"This was 10 times worse," said Borrelli, who averaged 5:34 per mile over the length of the course. "Last year, I finished up running like 5:25s.

"This year, the last few miles were 6:25. It was so hard. I hurt so bad, but it was worth it."

Borrelli looked over his left shoulder about a half-block from the finish line, but could not focus on McCabe, who was running down the middle of Washington Avenue almost two blocks behind him.

"I pretty much had 100 yards on him from Dickson City in," Borrelli said. "People kept telling me where he was and it seemed like he was always 100 yards, so he was running the same pace as me at the end.

"He's good. He's going to do some good things."

Mike Smith, 27, from Alexandria, Va., was third in 2:27:58, followed by Will Boylan-Pett, 27, from New York City in 2:28:32 and Eric Robertson, 24, from Allison Park, Pa. in 2:29:52.

UPDATED: 1:22 p.m.

SCRANTON -- The Steamtown Marathon has long been an attractive option for runners looking to meet qualifying standards for the Boston Marathon and other events.

Overall, the course has a 955-foot elevation drop.

Those hills, even the downhills, however, can make the course surprisingly tough.

"Those downhills will kill you," Kevin Borrelli said after winning the race for the second straight year. "They're a dirty little trick."

Tony Cerminaro, a 73-year-old from Jermyn, has won his age group all 14 years of the event. He said runners can get into trouble on the up-hill stretches late in the course, particularly if they get too greedy running downhill near the start in Forest City.

"Everyone says it gets tough in the last 10K," Cerminaro said. "Yes, it does.

"You have to know it and be careful not to push too hard at the beginning."

The demands of the hills can take such a toll on the quadriceps that the same athlete who can run 26.2 miles is unable to bend over to tie shoes or pick up a dropped bottle of water when it's over.

UPDATED: 1:10 p.m.

SCRANTON -- While the back end of the Steamtown Marathon field worked its way through Dunmore toward the finishing line, thousands packed the area around courthouse square.

Awards for the top finishers and age group winners were being presented at the square near the area on Washington Avenue where runners finish their 26.2-mile run from Forest City to Scranton.

UPDATED: 1:06 p.m.

SCRANTON -- Tony Cerminaro found a way to get faster at 73 years old.

The world-class age group runner and former Boston Marathon age group champion ran the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon in 3:20:17 Sunday.

Cerminaro, from Jermyn, improved on last year's time and extended his streak of winning his age group every year of the Steamtown Marathon.

"I beat it by over two and a half minutes," Cerminaro said. "I guess I'm getting better instead of worse.

"You've got to work at it and I do what I'm supposed to do."

Keep returning to the Web site throughout the day for more updates from the Steamtown Marathon.

UPDATED: 11:13 a.m.

SCRANTON -- Yolanda Mercado posted her third career marathon victory when she rallied in the second half of the race to become the first women's finisher at the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon.

Mercado, who won the 2004 Cleveland Marathon, qualified to represent Puerto Rico at the Beijing Olympics, but did not compete there.

The 39-year-old led early Sunday, gave up the lead at the 14-mile mark and regained it from 24-year-old Kaitlin Anelauskas of Cambridge, Mass after 20 miles.

"This route is very fast," Mercado said. "I had my best time ever in the 10K, then I had to think 'pace, pace, pace.'

"I pushed my body."

UPDATED: 10:40 a.m.

SCRANTON: Paul Leonard is still going strong.

The winner of the inaugural Steamtown Marathon finished in the top 10 Sunday, 13 years after his victory, with a time of 2:36:32.

The Scranton native, 47, is now living in Forty Fort.

UPDATED: 10:37 a.m.

SCRANTON -- Kevin Borrelli finished in 2:25:42 Sunday morning to become the first repeat winner of the Steamtown Marathon.

The former Mid Valley High School and Duquesne University runner struggled toward the finish, but never lost his lead.

"It hurt so bad," Borrelli said.

The pain, however, did not stop him.

"You can't lose with that many people out there calling your name," he said.

Jeff McCabe of Exeter finished 40 seconds back.

Mike Smith of Alexandria, Va. was third.

UPDATED: 10:23 a.m.

SCRANTON -- Kaitlin Anelauskas was leading Yolando Mercado and former champion Megan Duerring as the top women passed the 20-mile mark of the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon.

Anelauskas is a 24-year-old from Cambridge, Mass.

Mercado, 39, qualified to represent Puerto Rico at the Beijing Olympics.

UPDATED: 10:13 a.m.

SCRA NTON -- Kevin Borrelli has the lead more than 23 miles into the 14th annual Steamtown Marathon in his attempt to become the first male runner to win the race in back-to-back years.

Borrelli, the Marywood University cross country coach from Throop, is about 20 seconds ahead of Jeff McCabe from Exeter.

Matt Byrne is the only male runner to win the marathon twice.

For more details on this event, see Monday's Times Leader and next weekend's Scranton Edition of the Times Leader.