Scott McIntyre led more than 100 Austinites to the finish line on Sunday of the 38th annual Wellstone White Rock Marathon in Dallas. The 45-year-old McIntyre ran 2:53:22 to finish 50th overall and third in his age group at White Rock.

Conditions were far from ideal on Sunday as a cold front swept through North Texas and dropped the temperatures from a balmy 79 on Saturday to 47 degrees at the start at the American Airlines Center. But as the race progressed, the northerly winds picked up (which especially difficult around the 10-mile circuit of White Rock Lake) and the temperatures lowered ever further to teeth-chattering high 30s. Fortunately, the predicted thunderstorms never materialized and while it drizzled off and on, it was hardly a drenching downpour.

Still, as women’s runner-up Firaya Sultanova of Russia said, "It was very freezing, and my legs couldn't run." That sentiment was echoed by many.

Sultanova was caught by Kenya’s Emily Samoei near the halfway point and went on to win the women’s marathon in 2:35:25, but was unable to hold off the men—the elite women were given an 18:35 head start—in the Cooper Complete Gender Challenge. Samoei was caught by the six top men at mile 23 when her hamstring cramped in the cold.

The $25,000 Gender Challenge Purse and $10,000 for the men’s victory went to James Koskei of Kenya who ran 2:15:09. He was aiming to run a sub-2:10, but the cold and wind slowed him down.

More than 12,000 ran either the marathon or accompanying half marathon or relay. Among the Austinites finishing behind McIntyre were David Vance in 2:58:25 and Marty Yudizky in 2:58:46. First Austin woman was 43-year-old Nancy Dasso, who despite some foot and ITB problems, gutted out a 3:17:09 to finish third in her age division. Muna Mitchell was the second Austin woman to finish in a fine PR of 3:28:21. Tracy Nelson was listed as winning her age division in 4:17:41, but there was probably a scoring error.