Wheeling soldier wins Marine Corps Marathon

He ran his first marathon a decade ago, and on Sunday Charles “Chad” Ware of Wheeling ran the best race of his life to win the 36th Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington, Va.

Nearly 21,000 runners completed the race but few managed to keep pace with Ware, a 27-year-old Army reservist first lieutenant who recorded a personal-best of 2:19:16 and finished more than four minutes ahead of the next runner.

Despite cold temperatures — it was 39 degrees at the start of the race — Ware recorded the race's fastest time since 1997. Ware was just 16 seconds off the 2012 Olympic Trials qualifying time, a goal he thought he could make midway through the race.

But the last two miles feature several hills, and the final climb up the hill at the Iwo Jima Memorial proved to be too much before he crossed the finish line at Arlington National Cemetery.

“That hill killed me at the end, may have cost me the 16 seconds,” Ware told reporters covering the race. “Maybe if that wasn't there I would have been able to qualify for the trials.”

Tezata Dengersa, 30, of Turkey, won the women's division with an unofficial time of 2:45:28.

Ware, a native of South Bend, Ind., ran cross-country and indoor track at Butler University before he started on his military career.

Had he qualified for the Olympic trials in January, Ware could have joined the Army's World Class Athlete Program and begin training for the Olympics.