Thousands of runners hit the pavement Sunday for the 35th annual Edmonton Marathon, marking the largest number of participants in the event’s history. More than 10,000 people were registered for the race that includes a fall marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K and 1K fun run events. Men’s marathon winner Nageson Nyafaro Tuse broke the events record set in 2011 with a time of 2:18:16. “I’m really happy because I didn’t expect to break it,” said Tuse in a media release. Tuse moved to Canada from Kenya in 2024 and currently resides in Calgary. Mikky Keetels won the women’s marathon, breaking the events record set in 2015. “It’s such an honour,” said Keetels, who is from the Netherlands. “I wanted to race a comfortable race and I managed to do that in an event record.” The Edmonton Marathon is known as “the friendly marathon” as it is fast and flat. The course travels from downtown through the River Valley and into some of the city’s historic neighbourhoods.