KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — UPDATE: According to a statement released from the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, a race official on Sunday, Oct. 3, learned of a previous COVID-19 exposure, left the race and tested positive. Direct contacts have been notified.
Original: After a battle of 26.2 miles across the city joined by thousands of runners, Ethan Coffey from Knoxville became the winner of the 2021 Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon.
The 38-year-old held onto a wide lead for most of the race, crossing the finish line at roughly 2:47:00.
"I just won the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon for the first time since 2015...so I'm feeling pretty good about that," Coffey said. "It was a tough day but good to see a lot of people out there."
Knoxville runners ended up sweeping both the men's and women's marathon and half-marathon races.
A little under 30 minutes later, 32-year-old Eden Slater from Knoxville would be the first woman to cross the finish line with an unofficial time of 3:15:53.
Also for the first time in the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon's history, a female runner would be the one to cross the finish line first to win the half-marathon.
Knoxville runner Amanda Martin, 24, absolutely dominated the competition Sunday, running far ahead of the pack to win the overall half-marathon.
Martin's pace was astounding, running under a 6-minute mile about halfway through and keeping a considerable lead throughout the race. She crossed the finish line first to make history as the first female runner to win the overall Covenant Health Knoxville Half-Marathon with an unofficial time just over 1:19:00.
Martin is a 2015 Farragut High School graduate and ran cross-country. She recently graduated from the University of Tennessee in spring.
Not far behind was 47-year-old Stewart Ellington from Knoxville with an unofficial time of 1:23:05 to finish first for the men's group. Ellington coaches cross-country at Farragut Middle School.
You can check results when they are finalized by entering a name or bib number at this link on the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon website.
