Moyne-based runner Jason Daye seals marathon win

Jason Daye sped around the 42.2-kilometre course on Sunday in a blistering two hours and 29 minutes, a personal best, while the overall female champion Meta Vincent clocked three hours and 11 minutes.

Daye, who moved to Port Fairy in recent years from Melbourne, said the course made the most of the town's unique beauty.

"It took in all of the town's best assets," he said. "It had the rail trail, the wharf, the beaches and it was just amazing.

"I don't think they could make a quicker course. There were some tricky bits around the place but you couldn't find a quicker 42-kilometre (course)."

Vincent, who lives between the Bellarine region and Melbourne, said the variety of the course was a highlight.

"It was such a fantastic display of the local area. I quite liked all the turn-outs and turn-ins," she said. Vincent said she'd "officially" ran about 65 marathons in her lifetime but would've notched up dozens more "unofficially" through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daye said he wasn't quite at Vincent's tally but conceded he wouldn't be far behind. He and Vincent said time through lockdowns wasn't a bad time for runners as it was a permitted exercise.

"To get a personal best and to beat all those other runners and to still be improving is great," he said. Vincent said while she wasn't local to the south-west it held a special place in her heart. "The Moyne area is where my mum ended up," she said. In other results, Rachel Ayres was the female half-marathon winner while Francis Dowdle was the male champion. Narelle Frichot won the 10-kilometre category for women while Josh Christensen won the men's. Elsie-Mae Thomas won the female 3.5-kilometre grade while Patrick Thomas won the men's.

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