SOUTHERN TIER, N.Y. (WENY) -- As runners warmed up for the 42nd annual Wineglass Marathon, an orange, yellow, and white sunrise in Bath, New York took to skies around 7:03 a.m.  The marathon crosses Steuben County and athletes will hit checkpoints like Savona, Campbell, and Erwin before finishing the 26.2-mile race in Corning.


Six-time marathon runner, Joe Whelan broke the new male record at the 2023 event. He finished 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 17 minutes. 

"I was supposed to run the full marathon here, and I couldn't because I got injured, so I wanted to do it for a little bit of redemption," said First Male Finisher for Wineglass 2023 Joe Wheelan. 

Wheelan called this run a redemption because he was injured during the Wineglass Marathon two years ago in 2021.  Sunday, October 1st was Wheelan's 21st marathon and he is going to use his training tactics to keep preparing for New York City's Marathon on November 5th.

"The past few weeks, the volume has been pretty high. So not this past week, but I've been doing over 100 miles a week in between, uh, 95 and 1 10 for a bunch of weeks. So it was good to take it down this week and rest and be ready to run," explained Wheelan. 

Marathon runners had an opportunity to pace themselves during the long-distance run. Every runner with a time goal could line up with a volunteer and follow a steady pace to complete each mile. 

Estimated race completion time in hours  l  Estimated average mile in minutes

3:10                                                                 7:15

3:15                                                                  7:27

3:25                                                                  7:48

3:35                                                                  8:11

3:40                                                                  8:24 

3:45                                                                  8:35

3:50                                                                  8:47

3:55                                                                  8:57

4:00                                                                 9:08

4:10                                                                  9:31

4:20                                                                 9:55

4:30                                                                 10:18

4:45                                                                 10:52

The first female marathoner, Lindsay Piraino, crossed the finish line with 2 hours 44 minutes and 50 seconds. Lindsay's journey from the start line to the celebratory finish may be different than runners who listen to music while exercising or racing.

"Well, I don't listen to any music. I love just taking in the energy from the spectators. Um, my favorite spectator kept saying... Are we having fun yet? I saw him at three points along the course. So yeah, I was having a lot of fun," said Lindsay Piraino, First Female Finisher, Wineglass Marathon 2023. 

Lindsay has been running marathons for six seasons and she was awarded his first-place medal by two-time Olympian, Molly Huddle. The long-distance runner is from Elmira, New York and she ran in both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games. Huddle shared a valuable piece of advice for runners who are training for a long-distance run.

"So get there healthy and, uh, just believe that you can do it. It's a daunting thing, but... Trust me, like, once you get the adrenaline going, you'll get to the finish line," said Olympian Molly Huddle. 

Several races did hit the road throughout the chilly Sunday morning. The half marathon runners departed from Campbell, New York at 7:45, while the Marathoners took to the track from Bath at 8:15 a.m. for 26.2 miles.

Around five thousand athletes from 48 states and 14 countries were in attendance.