By james art 
Thousands of runners competed during the frosty Wilmington, North Carolina, Marathon
About 5,000 runners of all ages participated in the Wilmington marathon on February 22, 2025.
Wilmington’s annual marathon took place on Saturday morning, a view that saw thousands of runners flooding the streets throughout the city.
From a field of more than 1,100 runners, Charleston (West Virginia) Hector Folkon and Illinois -born Maria Lindberg took the titles of marathons. Falcon won the men’s race for 2 hours, 25 minutes, 34 seconds, while Lindberg beat the women’s field for 2 hours, 43 minutes, 23 seconds.
Kyton Anderson of Harisburg won the half-marathon with a time of 1:07:27, beating Ryan Yu from Alendale, New Jersey and Justin Pfruender of Winston-Salem with more than seven minutes. Katie Baksa from Knoxville, Tennessee, won the female half -marathon at 1:15:19.
A record number of athletes registered for this year’s competition, which marks the third consecutive year of growth. Saturday was the 15th edition of the competition.
Starting from Johnny Mercer at the beach of the Wrightsville, the runners in the marathon, the half -marathon and the baton races were by Eastwood Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Hayn Rhode Castle and Makrey Street in downtown Wilmington.
In 2024, the organizers presented a new part of the route that sent runners to the railway to the corridor on the northern part of Wilmington, which used the Wilmington passenger railway service for just over one mile to reach the 3rd street. The runners were experiencing this part of the course for the second time on Saturday.