Brit Jackie Stretton took a surprise win at the X-Bionic Lake Garda Marathon in Italy
Nestled in the northern mountains of Italy, Lake Garda is a spectacular body of crystal-clear water stretching for 52 km from north to south and 17 km from east to west.
Surrounded by majestic mountains and rolling hills, its been a popular tourist destination since the renaissance times thanks to its stunning natural scenery, Mediterranean climate and charming towns with their stunning water-facing villas.
The lake offers numerous activities for visitors, including swimming, boating, and windsurfing, but for this spring weekend, its the X-Bionic Marathon and Half-Marathon events which take centre stage.
An easy budget-friendly airline hop from the UK makes it a great destination for an early spring marathon and the intimate nature of the event means you avoid the crush of the bigger European city events.
Lake Garda
The course has gentle undulations making it great for chasing a personal best as it follows the lakeside route. The marathon starts on the west side of the lake and heads to the halfway point at the northern tip. Here, the half-marathon follows the same route to the finish heading south along the eastern side of the picturesque lake.
This years event was blessed with near-perfect running weather, typical of the time of year in the region, with a temperature of around 11 degrees and only a gentle breeze. The sun made an appearance to spotlight the stunning scenery.
The first of the large contingent of British runners making the trip to Lake Garda this year was Jackie Stretton taking victory in the womens race in 2:53:46. It proved to be a reasonably comfortable victory for her by the finish, with almost a six-minute buffer over second-placed Italian, Eleonora Gardelli in 2:59:31.
Stretton, of the Springfield Striders RC, ran a solo race and said: Running on Lake Garda was amazing, one of the most beautiful races I have ever run, it was my first time here and the route was more challenging than I expected with some hilly sections. Next year I will be here again to defend my title.
Jackie Stretton winner (Wisthaler)
It was a home nation podium in the marathon with Enrico Bartolotti taking first place from Matteo Vecchietti in 2:31:20 to 2:33:40. Third place was a little further adrift with Lorenzo Barconcelli in 2:44:02
First Brit home in the mens race was Mark Rogers of Cherwell Runners joining the sub-three hour club in 2:59:02.
The half-marathon had more of an international result with Austrian Christoph Sander taking the win in 71:40 from Italian Enrico Cozzini and Spaniard, Garcia Gutierrez in 73:11 and 74:14 respectively.
Start of Lake Garda Marathon (Paul Bramley)
The womens race saw Philine Meister of Germany take first place in 82:54 from Dragana Schroder of Croatia and Fatima Rakhssane of Italy in 88:20 and 89:00.
With 66% of participants taking part coming from overseas, the event has a great international feel. There were 62 nationalities represented, with runners arriving from 50 countries across all continents. Specifically, the country with the greatest number of participants was Germany as well as the strong British contingent.
Full results can be found here www.lakegarda42.com