Right from the start, the 18th annual Austin Marathon was going to be a different kind of race. Without prize money, there wasn’t going to be an elite field (or national-caliber times) which didn’t seem to bother anyone in the field of 14,000 marathoners and half marathoners.

Least of all the marathon winners.

Neither winner —Jeremy Borling and Elle Pishny—seemed to give a hoot whether there was any prize money or not. And yet, both Borling and Pishny were probably the happiest victors in the marathon’s 18-year history.

The two virtual unknowns slipped into town completely unnoticed and overlooked in pre-race prognostications. Other than their families, nobody in Austin knew who they were, as neither had ever won a marathon or even been in contention.

And yet, both Borling and Pishny led virtually from wire to wire on a cool, overcast morning with only a gentle northwest breeze.

First Borling. A communications manager for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Borling had come to Austin with his boss, Chicago logistics director Mike Nishi. Last fall, Borling had knee surgery and couldn’t run for 10 weeks. But while laid up, he had targeted Austin as his comeback marathon.

"I needed a reason to get back into training and run through the winter in Chicago," said Borling after his victory in 2:30:05. "Mike has run Austin and told me it was a good race so I wanted to come out here and test myself."

He passed the test with flying colors. After a 10-minute delay at the start, Borling ran with a group of half marathoners for the first four miles who he mistakenly thought were in the marathon. "Then, all of a sudden, they dropped back on that big downhill {coming down South 1st}," said Borling, "and I was in the lead."

It was a lead he would never surrender. With former UT All American Owen Washburn and Gilbert Tuhabonye chasing, Borling would extend his lead through splits of 28:41 (five miles), 36:19 (10-K) and 51:54 (10 miles).

By halfway, reached in 1:15:36, Borling had a commanding lead of over two minutes and the only real question remaining was whether he could hang on.

"I really only had two bad patches," said Borling, a 2002 graduate of North Central College, a small college running power, in Naperville, Illinois. "At halfway, I didn’t feel great because we had just come up some big hills and then at 18, I had a little trouble."

His 22nd mile might have been his slowest (six minutes), but he got it back together for the rugged final four-mile stretch to the finish on Congress. "I’ve never been in this position before of leading a marathon," said Borling who set his PR of 2:27 at Chicago—natch—in 2005. "In the last few miles, I felt a lot of responsibility running with the lead. I was just telling myself not to fall apart at the end and looked like a jerk in front of everyone on the press truck and the crowd. I just didn’t want that to happen."

Mission accomplished. Borling ran negative splits of 1:15:36/1:14:35 over the challenging up-and-down course which he never saw before Sunday. "I knew it was a hard course," Borling said, "but I liked the hills. Actually, I liked everything about the race, especially the weather. In Chicago, I’ve been training in brutal winter weather and this felt terrific."

Winners can talk that way—even if his winning time was the slowest in race history by six minutes. But Borling didn’t seem to care. "I never expected to win," Borling said, "so this was really great. In a way, I don’t feel like I really did win because I didn’t run an elite time. I do feel if I had been pushed I could have challenged my PR {2:27}, but nobody ever went with me."

In the battle for second, Tuhabonye went by Washburn (running his first marathon) at about the 22-mile mark.

"I know Owen and told him to come stay with me and I’ll take you to the finish," said Tuhabonye, "but he couldn’t go with me."

Nevertheless, Tuhabonye ran strongly over the final two-mile stretch of hills to place second in 2:31:58. Adam Nevins of Santa Monica, California was third in a huge PR of 2:33:48. Washburn, who now lives in Washington, D.C., was fourth in 2:36:02.

"This was the easiest marathon I have ever run," said Tuhabonye who, as the hometown hero, had great crowd support among the huge throngs of spectators congregated at City Hall, Northcross Mall and along Congress. "I have to hand it to the guy who won. I didn’t know who he was, but he ran a great race."

So did Elle Pishny.

 Like Borling, this was her fifth marathon and the first one she had ever won. Pishny had come to Austin as much to visit her sister who just moved here as run the marathon. She and her sister (as well as her parents and grandparents who came from Stillwell, Kansas to watch her run), spent a couple of days enjoying the sights of Austin, before getting down to business on Sunday morning.

But even running Austin was in some doubt. An exam by her podiatrist in North Carolina earlier in the week, weighed heavily on her mind. Her pod told she needed to take several months off from running to allow a foot injury to heal.  Or even worse, have surgery.

So much for that advice. The only concession Pishny made was wearing heavy training shoes, rather than racing flats.

Pishny, who ran at cross-country and track at Duke University, struggled with the early hills. "I didn’t feel very smooth," the 23-year-old said whose marathon PR before Sunday was 2:54, "so I was kind of surprised when one of the lead cyclists picked me up around five miles and told me I was the first woman."

Not only was Pishny the lead woman, she was about the only woman in sight. Pishny hooked up with several men, went through halfway in 1:24 and cruised to the finish in a personal best of 2:52:32 which is the second slowest  winning time in race history. (Only the first race in 1992 had a slower winning time.)

"I just came here to have fun," said Pishny who lives in Durham where she is a business development manager for a high-tech company. "I’m totally shocked that I won. This is something I never expected. I didn’t realize they didn’t have an elite field. I just didn’t know about it at all. My goal was to stay conservative over the hills and run well. I think I did that. I stayed relaxed and ran under control. This is so exciting for me and my family."

Coming in second in a major PR was Austin’s Nora Colligan who ran 2:58:31 (her first sub-three hour clocking). Third and first masters runner was 41-year-old Maria Yamin, 44, who broke three hours with a time of 2:59:27.

Pishny’s victory was not without some post-race intrigue. None of her splits registered on the timing devices and race director John Conley questioned her to determine whether she actually ran the entire course or not. (Pishny, who had never used the timing strips before, tucked her strip under her shoelaces and it was partially obscured by her shoe’s tongue which may explain why her splits didn’t show up.)

But there wasn’t any Rosie Ruiz controversy. One of the lead cyclists from the Jack and Adam’s team, said he rode with her nearly the entire race. "She was amazing," he said. "Her 5-K splits were almost perfectly even. She faltered a little bit around 22 miles, but then got it together again and finished strong. Trust me, she ran every step of the race."

In the accompanying half marathon, the results were a little different as the pre-race favorites—Bernard Manirakiza of Austin and world-class marathoner Elva Dryer --were easily the class of the 's field.

Dryer came to Austin from her home of Gunnison, Colorado to get out of the cold and put in a solid effort as she preps for the Boston Marathon. "I wanted to run a challenging course," said Dryer who has a marathon best of 2:31:48, "and this course is definitely a challenge. I’m glad I didn’t preview it or some of the hills might have scared me away. But I just took each hill one at a time and got through it."

In the early miles, Dryer ran with triathlete Desiree Ficker but the Coloradoan soon pulled away and settled in with a group of men. "Really, all I was trying to do today was tap into my marathon pace and see how it felt."

Evidently, it felt pretty good for Dryer who, soon after finishing in 1:15:38 (seventh overall), added a few more miles on the Lady Bird Lake Trail with Cassie Henkiel who was a teammate of her’s at Western State College in Colorado.

Ficker was second in 1:19:23, Janet Collar of Spokane was third in 1:21:04 and Henkiel was fourth in 1:21:40.

Like Dryer, Manirakiza of Austin also had a relatively easy time with the field—but not the course.

"This course was very hard," said Manirakiza whose PR is six minutes faster than his winning time of 1:09:33. "I’m not in great shape yet so this race was a good test to see where I am." Next up for Manirakiza is the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon in late April.

Tim Briles of Greenville, South Carolina was a distant second in 1:11:55 and Cor Seyhoo of Pearland was third in 1:13:26. Two-time New York City Marathon champ German Silva, 40 of Mexico, was fourth in 1:14.

The Austin Marathon was the sixth and final race in the '08-'09 Austin Distance Challenge series of races. Remarkably, every race in the series enjoyed ideal racing conditions from IBM in October to the Run for Water 10-Miler to the Decker Challenge and RunTex 20 as well as the 3M Half Marathon and Austin Marathon.