Photo below: Aaron Church of South Riding, VA, finishing eighth in the 10th Walt Disney World Marathon.

The Washington metropolitan area is home to many talented and dedicated local runners. Many distance runners flew south for the weekend to participate in the marathon and half marathon events at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Among the top local finishers, Aaron Church (age 27) finished an outstanding eighth in the marathon with a time of 2:30:23. Church finished second in two local road races recently: at the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis 10K, he came across the finish line in 32:05; his time at the Virginia Run Turkey Trot 5K in Centreville was 15:42.

Last year's overall marathon winner (2:32:38), British naval officer Dai Roberts (age 41) of Virginia Beach, finished 11th and won the Masters division with a time of 2:33:52.

The women's marathon title was claimed by a former Columbia- area speedster, Bea-Marie Altieri; she missed the qualifying standard for the Olympic Trials, which requires a 2:48:00 performance. (In 2002, Brazilian Ilda Santos won the division in 2:48:38.) According to Chan Robbins, Bea-Marie has a mate named George Altieri who is a very good triathlete. Her maiden name is Frisch and she placed in the top 25 at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler several times. In 1999 and 2001, Bea-Marie Altieri placed 16th with respective times of 58:36 and 59:43.

Also finishing in the front of the pack, male masters runner Patrick Griffith (age 58) placed 13th overall in the half marathon with a time of 1:23:07.

Congratulations to everyone who went the distance..

See a photo gallery by the publishers of the Washington Running Report.

See the Marathon or Half Marathon results for local finishers

Or search for an individual Result. Type "Disney" into the search box for "Race Name Search".