Picture perfect weather for the annual running of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Kenya's Philemon Rono was equally picture perfect. The defending men's champion had little trouble repeating. In fact Rono crossed the finish line at Nathan Phillips Square in a personal best time of 2:06:51 to win the race, that also set a new record for the fastest marathon run in Canada. Rono's winning time was 3 seconds faster than a year ago.
"I'm feeling very happy today. I run my personal best and a Canadian record."
In her first attempt in Toronto, Marta Megra of Ethiopia won the elite Women's title. Megra finished in a time of 2:28:17.
Megra found the course to be challenging. Through a traslator Megra noted "the first part (of the race) was very easy, but the second part, especially after 30km is too tough."
Canada's fastest woman was London's Leslie Sexton, who captured Canada's Marathon Championship title finishing 5th overall, after being forced to sit out the race a year ago because of an injury.
The race drew 25,000 comeptitors from around 60 counttries world wide.