2024 Eugene Marathon sells out, rewrites event's top times lists
Photo by Charlie Townes
On Sunday, the second day of the Eugene Marathon weekend, nearly 10,000 athletes came together to run the 13.1 or 26.2–mile course through the streets of Eugene.This is the first time in the history of the event that the marathon has sold out.
Runners started at 7:00 a.m. and ran through local neighborhoods, along the Willamette River, and finished at the finish line at Hayward Field. Matthew Hernandez and Kate Landau came away with the victories for the 17th annual marathon.
Matthew Hernandez won the men’s 26.2–mile marathon in 2:22:31. His 5:26 minute pace helped him cut in the front and win the division by 15 seconds.
“This race means everything to me,” said Hernandez. “I’m going to continue to move it forward and grow as a runner.”
Kate Landau won the women’s 26.2–mile marathon in 2:40:53. Her 6:08 minute pace time got her on the top-ten all-time best women’s marathon times for the Eugene Marathon, placing her at fifth on the list.
The half marathon followed a similar route, running through local neighborhoods, over the Willamette River, and finished at Hayward Field. Alex Ostberg won the half marathon for the men’s division and Moira O’ Connor Lenth won the half marathon for the women’s division.
With a time of 1:05:02, Alex Ostberg won the male’s half-marathon division for the 2024 half marathon. His time also placed him second on the Eugene Marathon all-time list, beating Andrew Lemoncello’s time in 2015 by two seconds. Ostberg also coaches for the Bowerman Track Club in Eugene, Oregon.
“I couldn’t turn down a chance to race in my backyard. I work out of Hayward almost every day of the week and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” Ostberg said. “I’m really grateful to come out here and run hard and push myself.”
With a time of 1:17:21, Moira O’ Connor Lenth won the women’s half marathon division. Her 5:54 pace gave her a PR in the event. The Seattle native was neck and neck with second place Hillary Heskett for most of the 13.1 miles, but ended up pulling away to win by 19 seconds.
“I’ve done this race a couple of times before,” Lenth said. “It’s one of my last big races before I start my residency for med school. It’s a pretty important race. It was pretty special to PR.”
Thousands of people showed up at Hayward this weekend cheering on loved ones and strangers as they raced. The half and full marathons close out the 17th annual marathon weekend in Tracktown U.S.A.
Check out photos from the 2024 Eugene half and full marathon, by Charlie Townes
