Dawn Neal of Winnipeg and Andrew Taylor of Lafayette are 2024 Manitoba Marathon champions.

Neal won the women’s marathon for the second year in a row.

“I can’t even believe it,” said Neal shortly after completing the 42.2 kilometre course in Winnipeg. “It hurt. I’m not going to lie. Thankful for the cool weather, the great fans, the amazing volunteers. I went out hard and just tried to hang on and so thankful to see my family at mile 19 again.”

Neal broke the tape in 2:53:51.

Jessica Wylychenko of Winnipeg (2:55:36) was runner-up for the second year in a row. Jaala Van Dongen of La Broquerie (3:15:28) finished third to complete an All-Manitoba podium finish.

“We’re moving out of province in the next two weeks so this could be my last Manitoba Marathon," the 42-year-old champion said. "I’m just so grateful."

hockey_2023Andrew Taylor ran away with the Manitoba Marathon

Taylor completed the course in 2:32:51 and finished almost 10 minutes ahead of runner-up Tyler Derksen of Winnipeg.

“It’s amazing,” said the 24-year-old Indiana native. “I came here, and the hospitality has been amazing. To go out there and have people cheering the whole way and encourage you the whole way – to finish that off just feels great. We knew it was going to be a bit windy and humid out there so kind of went out a bit conservative and at about 10 miles I started to cut it down. I was pretty well by myself, but the crowd kept me going the whole way.”

Over 10,000 runners registered for the 46th edition of the traditional Father’s Day event.

“It was a crazy day,” noted Manitoba Marathon executive director Rachel Munday. “The morning started with very, very heavy rain, lightning and thunder. There was a little bit of nervousness watching the weather. Hoping that I could believe what I was seeing and that it would all pass by the start time.”

The rain stopped 15 minutes before the 7 a.m. start time for the Full Marathon and the first wave for the Half Marathon.

“Just such an exciting day,” added Munday. “So many new runners, great numbers for all of our events. Our events were all sold out so just a great energy.”

British Columbia’s Natasha Wodak (1:12:56) and Cameron Levins (1:04:23) won the half marathons.

2024 Manitoba Marathon results