After enduring freezing weather early on and battling cramps for his last four miles, David Marley held off defending champion Alex Barbosa Saturday with a time of 2 hours, 31 minutes, 20 seconds to win the second annual Soldier Marathon.

“I hit the wall at mile 22,” Marley said. “Those last four miles, I was struggling just to finish. I didn’t want to quit. I went into survival mode — just did whatever I had to do to finish.

“I wanted to run under 2:30:00, but I was a minute off, but I’m not going to complain about that.”

The race, which began and finished at the National Infantry Museum, offered both 13.1- and 26.2-mile routes, which wound through Fort Benning and downtown Columbus. Last year’s race went through parts of Phenix City, but event coordinator Cecil Cheves said he was not able to use the same route because of construction on the 14th Street bridge.

Cheves said 1,400 people registered for the event, almost a 50 percent increase from about 950 last year. Runners came from 38 states, as well as three countries — the United Kingdom, Brazil and Canada.
 “It was a much bigger success this year,” he said. “The event seems to have caught wind and the community is embracing the race. It’s more than a sporting event. It’s saluting the men and women in service.”

Marley, a 24-year-old Columbus resident and graduate assistant for Columbus State’s cross-country team, said the marathon was only the second race he’s competed in.

Marley ran at a pace of 5:47 and said it was important for him not to overexert himself early on.

“One thing about my first marathon, I got out of control in the first half and paid for it the second half,” he said. “I made sure I stayed under control in the first half of this marathon.”

Barbosa, a Brazilian marine, finished at 2:34:17, over a minute ahead of his time last year, but said he still thought he should have done better. The cold weather, he said, affected his pace and caused him cramps later in the race. The temperature at the time the race began was 32 degrees.

Mike Gerber finished third at 2:41:59, Wes Hargrove finished fourth at 2:51:44 and Rusty Branch finished fifth at 2:51:57.

Mariska van Rooden was the top female performer with a 3:14:46 finish time at a 7:26 pace.

Kelly Brown Calway, daughter of Maj. Gen. Robert Brown, MCoE commander, had the best overall time in the 13.1 half-marathon. She finished at 1:18:26 with a 5:59 pace.

Calway was the 2008 Army Female Athlete of the Year and earned a berth in December to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon team trials set for Jan. 14 in Houston.