Clara Santucci was the women’s winner for the second year in a row and Kenyan Stephen Njoroge, the runner-up two years ago, won the men’s race at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon in Pittsburgh, Penn., Sun., May 3.

Both came through strongly in the final miles after being well off the pace earlier in the race to win in 2:34:06 and 2:15:19 respectively.

Santucci, 28, from Dilliner, Penn., trailed Kenyan Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton, 26, almost all the way before passing her in the final mile for a victory that earned her $13,500 in prize money. Tuliamuk-Bolton, who was an All-American at Wichita State and now lives in Santa Fe, N. Mex., where she is the training partner of this year’s Boston Marathon champion Caroline Rotich, was making her marathon debut. She actually held a big lead at one time, but when Santucci passed her with a mile to go, she could not respond.

“I was feeling great, but my legs were just not moving anymore,” Tuliamuk-Bolton said later. “I think I hit the wall people talk about all the time.”

Santucci said after the race, “There were times that I couldn’t even see her and I just had to run on faith that this is a marathon and things happen in the last few miles. I’m not known for my kick in any short races but I can tough it out pretty good when the going gets hard, so that’s what I did and it paid off.”

Describing her approach in the last mile to nail down the victory after she had overtaken Tuliamuk-Bolton, Santucci said, “It was just go for it, show her what you’ve got and give her no hope. I’m a pretty smiley, kind person off the course, but on the course, I’m willing to go to the death with you if you’re anywhere near me.”

In running 2:34:06, Santucci finished 38 seconds ahead of Tuliamuk-Bolton, who was the runner-up in 2:34:44. Christina Murphy, 34, of Columbus, Ohio finished third in 2:40:29.

Stephen Njoroge, 25, won the men’s race in 2:15:19 even though Ethiopia’s Mulue Andon Berke, who has a marathon personal best of 2:11:03, was leading by 15 seconds at halfway.

Njoroge and Ethiopian Negash Abebe Duki caught Berke at 15 miles. Approaching 19 miles, Njoroge pulled away and by 23 miles had opened a big lead. Berke then dropped out with an ankle injury.

Duki began to catch Njoroge late in the race, but fell short by 24 seconds as he ran 2:15:43. Another Ethiopian, Werkuhah Seyoum Aboye, 30, finished third in 2:17:13.

Tyler McCandless, 28, of Boulder, Colo., but originally from Pennsylvania where he was an All-American at Penn State, was the first American to finish. The former world record holder in the Double 15K, McCandless ran 2:18:29 to finish fourth.

There were 20,547 finishers in this year’s race, which has become an annual road racing extravaganza in the Steel City.

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