By BRADLEY S. RICHARDSON
'Faith in Every Footstep' was taken literally Thursday as runners endured the Pioneer Day Deseret News Marathon and 10K.
Andrei Tarassov, of Russia, won the marathon with a time of 2:21:36 and Michelle Simonaitis won the women's division with a time of 2:51:59. Utahn Ed Eyestone won the 10K with a time of 28:04 and Kris Ihle won the women's division with a 31:41.
The marathon had 835 runners and over 2,800 runners participated in the 10K. Several nations were represented in the run.
International runners now have more incentive to run the Pioneer Day races.
'We used to pay prize money to American citizens only and then we decided to give it to all comers regardless of nationality,' said Steve Handy, marketing director at the Deseret News and executive race director.
Handy said the prize money was withheld from international runners in the past because of concerns that runners from Kenya and other countries would monopolize the marathon.
Runners of all ages participated.
Darryl Beardall, 60, from Santa Rosa, Calif., attended BYU from 1964 to 1966 and ran on the cross country and track teams. Beardall has run over 200 marathons.
Beardall likes the marathon because of its unique parade route. The route takes the runner along two miles of the parade route before the parade starts.
'All the people yelling and laughing makes it nice,' Beardall said.
Jeff McClellan, a BYU graduate in journalism from Provo ran his first marathon Thursday. McClellan's farthest run prior to the marathon was 12 miles. McClellan said there were two reasons he ran the marathon.
'First to remember my ancestors and what they did and the fact that they'd done much more and (second) a desire to honor them and glorify their sacrifice,' McClellan said.
Many volunteers came to help with the marathon, including many nurses and around 500 masseuses from the Utah College of Massage Therapy.
'It was neat to see how (the marathon) drew everyone together, and how everyone was so willing to lift and help each other along the way,' McClellan said.
Athol Symonds drove from Vancouver, Canada to participate in the marathon and watch the Days of '47 parade.
'It's a nice marathon as long as you don't kill yourself on the hills,' Symonds said. Thursday's run was Symonds' 13th marathon.