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Mbarak Hussein and Aimee Larkin were the top finishers in the Salt Lake City half-marathon. Hussein, from Albuquerque, N.M., finished in 1 hour, 5 minutes, 17 seconds, and Larkin, of Salt Lake, finished in 1:22:28.

Simon Sawe (1:05:33), B.J. Christensen (1:10:59), Alexander Pachev (1:13:25) and Augustus Gray (1:13:57) rounded out the top five. Seven of the top 10 finishers were from Utah.

On the women's side, Jasmine Sessions (1:24:09), Jessica Green (1:26:13), Carol Cabanillas (1:27:36) and Jessica Forsyth (1:30:27) were among the top five. All but one of the women with the 10 fastest times were from Utah.

Taylorsville's Teren Jameson and Salt Lake City's Abigail Larson were the winners in the 5K race. Jameson finished in 14:43, while Larson did it in 18:11.

Brad Ray, Vance Anderson and John Brewer were the top three finishers in the wheelchair category. Harold Warner, Alfred Sanchez and Matt Bambrough were the first three to finish in the crank wheelchair category.

Youngest of them all

Ben Allen, of Walnut Creek, Calif., and Taylor Adams and Jacob Kirkpatrick, both from Pleasant Grove, were the three youngest participants to finish the marathon. Adams, 14, finished in 3:34:31. Allen, 14, came in at 3:59:15, and Kirkpatrick, 13, came across the finish line at 4:36:33.

Just short of a world record

Joggler Michal Kapral came within a minute and a few seconds of the world record by finishing the Salt Lake City Marathon in 2:53:28.

The record for "fastest marathon while juggling three objects" is 2:52:15, set at the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2006 by Zach Warren.

On Saturday, Warren clocked in at 2:57:02.

Kapral and Warren stayed with each other for most of the race and alternated leads. From miles 12-15, Warren had the lead. Then Kapral was ahead for the next two miles. For about five miles, the runners were even until Kapral took advantage when Warren took a water break. At the 22-mile mark, Kapral took off.

"At the 24th mile, everything went blank. I was hallucinating. I just couldn't move forward," Kapral said. "Focusing on juggling, it did help me relax, but at some point, it does get frustrating. I just wanted to throw the balls on the side of the road."

Warren hit that point of frustration, too.

"It's psychological warfare," Warren said. "It's so tempting to give up. I was feeling terrible at mile 12."

Even though there is a rivalry between the runners, there's also respect.

"It was a really good battle," Kapral said. "It was back and forth."

Elite athletes coordinator Larry Barthlow said Kapral would have gotten a world record Saturday if it wasn't for the altitude.

"He probably lost five or six minutes because of the altitude," Barthlow said.

Perfect weather

Saturday's weather was a marathon runner's paradise. There was a slight breeze, cool air right before the start of the race and a perfect warmth as soon as the elite runners crossed the finish line.

That wasn't the case last year.

The marathon was held in June, and the weather was hot and sticky.

This year, however, the temperature was 40 degrees at the 7 a.m. start and creeped into the 50s toward the end.