NTELOS 8K men and women's course records shattered as race boasts record field.

Ethiopian Asnake Fekadu [Photo left] was alone by mile one and breezed to a runaway win in Saturday's 29th running of the SunTrust Richmond Marathon in a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes and 23 seconds. Enduring warm weather that saw afternoon temperatures approach 80 degrees, the 26-year-old Fekadu was unchallenged the entire race and beat Ukrainian Andrii Toptun by more than 7 minutes. Twenty-one year-old Ryan Deak of Richmond was third, followed by Chris Toepfer and Josh Irwin.

On the women's side, Richmonder Maureen Ackerly [photo below] captured her first marathon title with a gritty win over Russian Elvira Kolpakova. Ackerly trailed by more than a minute early in the race before finally taking the lead past the halfway point. Her winning time of 2:53:14 was almost three minutes faster that Kolpakova, who was hampered by a knee injury. Johanna Allen, Michelle Mudge-Riley and Tammy Slusser rounded out the top five.

For the third year in a row, the NTELOS 8K provided special excitement for the thousands of spectators on hand at the finish. The top 5 men's finishers all beat the 5-year-old race record, lead by Kenyan Samuel Ndereba's mark of 22 minutes and 20 seconds. That was two seconds ahead of countryman Valentine Orare and five ahead of Emmanuel Chamer. Joseph Chirlee and Fasil Bizuneh finished fourth and fifth. All five broke the race record of 22:36 set by Shadrack Kosgei set in 2001.

The 8K race record also fell multiple times on the women's side. Kenyan Madgdalene Mukunzi set the new standard of 25:24, two seconds ahead of Asmae Leghzaoui and five better than Emily Chebet. All three broke the old mark of 25:36 set by Svetlana Zakharova in 2000. Florence Jepkosgei and Caroline Cretti rounded out the top five.

A total of 5,393 runners registered for this year's NTELOS 8K, smashing last year's record of 4,698. There were a total of 10,059 combined registrants in the SunTrust Richmond Marathon, NTELOS 8K and Richmond Times-Dispatch Kids Run, the second straight year the event has attracted over 10,000 participants.