Charlotteans sweep marathon races

Under clear skies and aided by ideal temperatures for long-distance running, four Charlotteans swept the top spots in the 26.2- and 13.1-mile road races at Saturday's Novant Health Charlotte Marathon.

In the men's marathon, James Perez - a 26-year-old former cross-country and track and field star at Furman University - posted a time of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 37 seconds, finishing more than 6-1/2 minutes ahead of runner-up Chris Raulli of Cornelius (2:38:10) and more than seven minutes ahead of third-place Billy Shue of Charlotte (2:38:52).

The women's marathon was much tighter at the end, with Melissa Bell, 37, out-kicking Bridget Zimmerman, 28, of Covington, Ky., on the final couple of blocks before the finish. Bell, who works at Novant Health Presbyterian Hospital, ran a 3:04:45 in edging Zimmerman by just seven seconds. Jordan Eicher of Mooresville placed third in 3:07:20.

Meanwhile, Bert Rodriguez, 39, was the men's half-marathon winner in a time of 1:14:04. A business consultant, he was the 2017 winner of the men's full marathon.

The women's half-marathon champion was Lucy Rogers, 31, a property manager for Childress Klein who ran at Davidson College. Her time of 1:20:58 put her more than 3 minutes ahead of runner-up Alice Purser of Charlotte.

This was the 14th running of the marathon, which changed its name from Thunder Road to Charlotte in 2016. The course starts and finishes next to BB&T Ballpark in uptown and winds through some of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods, including Myers Park, Dilworth, South End, NoDa, Plaza Midwood and Elizabeth.

Temperatures were in the lower 40s at the start of the race Saturday, and climbed into the mid-50s by midday.

Charlotte Marathon managing director Tim Rhodes said about 1,200 runners were registered for the marathon, and about 2,500 were signed up for the half. There was also a 5K, a marathon relay race, and a 1-mile fun run.

Results are available here: http://runcharlotte.com/runners/results/. .