Wearing a stocking cap, gloves and sunglasses on a sunny, chilly morning, Dan Vassallo, 29, of Peabody, Mass., who had won this race in 2010 in 2:21:28, shaved almost exactly four minutes off that time to win the Gore-Tex Philadelphia Marathon, Sun., Nov. 23, in 2:17:27.

Ethiopians Birhanu Dare Kemal and Abiyot Endale, who are both 28 and live in the New York City area, filled the other two spots on the winners podium as they ran 2:17:51 and 2:18:45 respectively.

Christopher Zablocki, 26, of Essex, Conn., was the only other runner to dip under 2:20 as he ran 2:19:19 to finish fourth.

Vassallo was a particularly happy winner on Sunday – and not just because he won. His main goal this year was to qualify for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trails. To do that he needed to finish in 2:18 or better – and he was able to do that with more than 30 seconds to spare.

“It was a dream come true,” he said afterwards. “That’s my best marathon time.”

The $3500 he collected for winning made the occasion that much sweeter.

To shed further perspective on his performance in the race, his time of 2:17:27 was only 40 seconds off the race record of 2:16:47 set by Kenya’s Joseph Ndiritu in 2003.

Vassallo had led the race for the first 14 miles, but when several runners passed him at that point, he made no effort to go with them.

“My goal was to stay on pace,” he explained later. “If I had a little left in the tank at the end, I’d use every last second of it.”

At 20 miles, with the Philadelphia temperature at 43 degrees, Ethiopia’s Birhanu Dare Kemal was in the lead, and by 23 miles he was leading by about a block – with Vassallo now in fifth or sixth place. It was then Vassallo was able to use that little something extra he had “left in the tank,” with the result that by 25½ miles he had caught Kemal and regained the lead. At first, when Vassallo passed him, the Ethiopian put up a fight, but it was in vain.

“My legs did not respond,” Kemal explained later. The $2000 he received for finishing second helped soothe his “agony of defeat.”

In the women’s race Leonora Petrina, 32, of Bayport, N.Y., made her debut at the marathon distance a victorious run to remember as she won by more than two minutes in 2:39:59.

Following her to the finish in second place was Lauren Philbrook, 27, of State College, Penn., who ran 2:42:05.

Shitaye Gemechu, 34, of Ethiopia rounded out the top three as she finished in 2:42:36.

“It was my first marathon ever,” Petrina said after her victory, explaining that she had first decided last year to move up to the marathon. “I was losing speed (in the shorter races) so I needed to move up (in) distance.”

Smart move! Her first time out in the marathon, she wins the race, breaks 2:40 and collects $3500 for her victory.  Nice debut to say the least.

Sunday in the City of Brotherly Love turned out to be a day of cool temperatures, quality times and exciting competition in this Philadelphia classic, now in its 21^st year, which will have Gore-Tex as the new title sponsor from 2014 through 2016. The top 10 men all ran under 2:24 and the top 10 women were all under 2:50. The Philadelphia Marathon course, with its flat terrain, scenic beauty and enthusiastic crowds, is generally regarded as one of the top 10 marathon courses in the country. This year’s race had 10,203 finishers – 5,666 men and 4,545 women. 

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