Missoula’s own Mark Messmer won the 2018 Missoula Marathon on Sunday morning with a personal best time of two hours twenty-seven minutes, not bad for a young man who did not consider himself much of a runner at Sentinel High School.

“I wasn’t that good in high school,” said a very tired Messmer. “I was able to walk on at UM and was on their cross country and track team for all four years, so I consider that the start of my competitive career. Afterwards, I just started getting into the road races, the marathons and half marathons and I’ve been improving a little bit every year, so to take another step forward and win this one was very special.”

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The women’s marathon winner was Keeley Baker from Great Falls.

The women’s half marathon was won by a very familiar name in Montana high school athletics, Makena Morley of Bigfork, who now competes for the University of Colorado in cross country and track.

Morley set a new course record for the women’s half marathon.

“I was just out there having fun and I had a great biker out there next to me, Ethel, and she was awesome the whole way,” said Morley. “There was a good group of guys running with me, so it was awesome. My whole family runs together and we all help one another and I love running with my sister and my brother and we’re all home for the summer.”

With more than 6,100 total participants and exceptional weather for both Saturday’s and Sunday’s races, Run Wild Missoula has chosen to stay with their plan to move the date of the event into June for the next two years.

 

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