By Susan Miller Degnan for the Miami HeraldThe ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon took off in predawn darkness at 6:20 a.m. Sunday, a mass of legs churning down Biscayne Boulevard toward the goal of 26.2 miles -- or 13.1 miles for the half marathoners.
By Saturday evening, when registration had ended, a race-record 21,116 had registered for the marathon and half marathon -- an increase of about 17,000 participants since the event's inaugural running in 2003.
Runners represented 79 countries and every state.
A race-record 4,538 registered for the 26.2-mile marathon distance.
``It's just awesome,'' race director David Scott said about 15 minutes before runners took off from AmericanAirlines Arena. ``The biggest challenge this year has been to keep up with the registration.
``I feel exactly like I did at the end of last year's race. Last year, I said, `Let's do it again in a week.' I'm already looking forward to the next marathon.''
The winning marathoner, Tesfaye Sendeku Alemayehu of Ethiopia, won by a landslide in 2 hours 12 minutes 57 seconds -- 35 seconds off the course record.
The marathon runner-up, Benazzouz Slimani, 34, of Morocco, finished in 2:18:23. Slimani won the ING Miami Marathon in 2009.
Last year's marathon winner, Michael Wardian, 36, finished third in 2:23:41. His time last year was 2:28:39.
Alena Vinitskaya, 37, of Belarus was the women's marathon winner -- also by a huge margin -- in 2:44:39. She was runner-up in two previous ING Miami Marathons.
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