Runners hit the streets in Canberra Times Marathon Festival

The Canberra Times Marathon Festival was well under way on the crisp Autumn morning as family, friends and pets lined the roads to celebrate the runners making their way over the finish line.

"I'm not overly happy with the time but I had a bit of trouble with cramping and I'm proud enough to hold on to at least finish the race and win," Mr Lacey said.

"I just didn't expect the hills to be as long as what they were but yeah it was harder than I expected."

Mr Lacey ran the race with a time of 2:31:28 which is just over 10 minutes longer compared to the last marathon winner Dr Nick Earl in 2019 with a time of 2:20:25.

Marnie Ponton came in first for the women's full marathon, making a time of 2:43:27 which is a little under 20 minutes longer compared to 2019 winner Stephanie Auston with a time of 2:24:33.

"I went out pretty hard and paid for it in the back end so the last half was a struggle," Ms Ponton said.

"I was just glad to battle through to be honest and proud of myself to be able to hang on."

The men's marathon second placegetter Daniel Carson ran over the finish line with a time of 2:32:19 and Russell Dessaix-Chin came third with a time of 2:34:11.

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Approximately 6000 runners hit the pavement in the early hours of the day for the marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometre, 5.4-kilometres and the two-kilometre kids fun run

Half-marathon winner and second place winner Sam Toll and Matthew Schaumberg from Melbourne have trained together since they were young so agreed to run the race together and help one another out.

"It was pretty tough to be honest, like I haven't run this before and it doesn't really go flat anywhere and it just keeps going up and down so I guess it's kind of Canberra," Mr Toll said.

"Sort of probably 14 or 15 kilometres we sort of starting to spurt on each other, we're sort of trying to see who had a bit more as we got around to Telopea Park and Sammy just had a little bit more to put in the surge so he was able to hold off and raced it very well."

Mr Toll finished with a time of 1:07:47 while Mr Schaumberg came in second at 1:08:01 and Harrison Bagley came in third with a time of 1:09:27.

For the women's half-marathon Tennille Ellis came in first with a time of 1:17:11 while Megan Tumminello was second with a time of 1:21:32 and Alae Brand at third place with a time of 1:25:11.

Families also ran across the finish line with their kids, such as Minnie Singh-Murphy and Arie X Singh-Murphy, 5, who shared a hug as they finished the five kilometre race.

"Her dad is running the marathon and she was ready to run so we came from Sydney to Canberra because we love Canberra and it was very fun to run together," Ms Singh-Murphy said.

"The race was quite flat and Canberra's beautiful."

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