Three weeks before walking down the aisle at their wedding, Nathan Carlson and Polina Babkina shared the experience of running 26.2 miles.

Carlson and Babkina took a break from planning their late-December wedding and nearly crossed the finish line together as the first Hawaii residents to finish the Honolulu Marathon on Sunday.

Carlson overcame a leg injury and late-race cramping to claim top resident honors while finishing in 2 hours, 45 minutes, 39 seconds in his first marathon.

Babkina, a former Hawaii Pacific University cross country runner, came in 1:01 later as the top female among local entrants and finished fifth overall in the women’s standings.

It wasn’t until they reunited at the finish line that they realized how close their times were.

Matthew Holton of Kula topped Kamaaina finishers (born in Hawaii) with a time of 2:53:36. Candes MeijideGentry led the female Kamaaina finishers at 3:36:40.

Carlson and Babkina met after running the Hapalua half-marathon in the spring and got engaged following the Maui Half-Marathon in September.

Carlson, a 32-year-old physical therapist originally from Washington, has devoted some of his free time to teaching a weekly running clinic, but had focused his own training on half-marathons before entering Sunday’s race.

He injured his hamstring a little more than two weeks before the marathon, but managed to push through to place 24th overall in the men’s race.

"Pretty much my left leg doesn’t work very well, so the whole race was very painful," Carlson said. "I was praying the whole time. I knew I needed a miracle because it was like I was running on one leg."

Babkina moved to Hawaii from Sochi, Russia, and completed her HPU career in 2012. The 26-year-old won the Kona Marathon in June and the Xterra Trail Run World Championship last month.

"I think the conditions were very favorable today, the weather was perfect," she said. "I eventually started feeling tired in mile 14 and then just tried to push myself and maintain my mental strength."

Clays celebrate 10th anniversary

Olympic decathlete Bryan Clay will do about anything to get out of long-distance running. But when his wife, Sarah, asked to celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary by running the Honolulu Marathon, there was only one answer.

"This is not my cup of tea," said Bryan, the 2008 Olympic decathlon gold medalist and a Castle High graduate. "If I can weasel my way out of running, I’m going to weasel my way out. But she wanted to do it for our anniversary. We decided to get it in. How can you say no when your wife asks you to celebrate your anniversary?"

The Clays finished together in 4:44:47, nearly two minutes faster than last year, when they ran a marathon together for the first time.

"We had a rough go with our training, we missed a lot, he was sick before," Sarah said.

"It was a little bit different, but we didn’t want to give up. We put in a lot of hours running. We came out and did our best. We beat our time from last year, which is all we wanted."

Rather than celebrating their 10-year anniversary on Jan. 3 with something extravagant like a cruise, Sarah thought it would be appropriate to do something related to her husband’s work.

"I think its cool to set the example of staying fit, especially for him and the work he does now, speaking with kids about health, wellness, staying active," she said. "It’s fitting for us to do this together — what better time than our 10-year anniversary? I’m proud of us."

Soejima, Tsuchida win wheelchair titles

Competitors from Japan swept the top spots in the wheelchair division.

Masazumi Soejima was the first racer to cross the finish line Sunday, in 1:31:14. It was the seventh Honolulu Marathon win for the Nagasaki resident, who took an early lead and never relinquished it.

Krige Schabort of Georgia was second in 1:42:28.

Wakako Tsuchida from Tokyo won the women’s race in 1:52:50. Christine Greer of Honolulu was second in 2:44:15.

Chun, Dill make it 41 and counting

Jerold Chun and Gary Dill completed their 41st Honolulu Marathon on Sunday, the last two runners to participate in every race since its inception in 1973.

Chun, who ran his first marathon at age 13, finished with a time of 4:40:49. Dill, 69, came in at 7:16:13.

Marathon entries top 30,000 again

The marathon broke the 30,000 mark for entries for the second straight year with 30,568 signing up through the close of registration on Saturday. Out of that number, 22,599 made it to the starting line Sunday morning and 22,108 had finished with six runners still on the course.

The marathon attracted 31,083 entrants last year. The event last topped 30,000 in back-to-back years in 1996 (30,864) and ’97 (33,682).

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