Clear skies and sunshine brought a record number of runners to the Athens Marathon — Ohio’s oldest — yesterday.

The 41st annual marathon and 18th annual half-marathon attracted 786 runners, beating last year’s record of 740, said Arnie LeGraff, one of the event’s directors.

Official results for the 26.2-mile marathon and 13.1-mile half-marathon will be posted on www.athensmarathon.org today.

First-time marathon runner Austin Schiele, a 23-year-old Ohio University alumnus, won the full marathon with a time of about two hours and 44 minutes. A 2007 graduate with a degree in civil engineering and former member of the Ohio cross-country and track teams, Schiele said he was surprised by his own performance.

“The race was what I expected through the first 20 miles and then I hit a wall,” he said. “The last six miles was the hardest run of my life.”

Mike Kunston won the half-marathon with a time of about one hour and 14 minutes.

The Athens Marathon is a certified qualifying race for the Boston Marathon, which requires different qualifying times per age group, said Paul Mullins, one of the event’s directors. Runners have to meet the times set by Boston Marathon officials in order to compete. LeGraff estimated that about 50 runners came in hopes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

The half-marathon and the full marathon started at 9 a.m. yesterday at College Green on the corner of Court and West Union streets and continued west on Union Street toward Shafer Street and the HockHocking Adena Bikeway toward Nelsonville.

The half-marathon and full marathon runners turned around on the bike path at different points. All runners finished the race with a lap and a half around the track at Pruitt Field near West Green. The last runner completed the run at about 3 p.m.

Not all of the runners were from Athens. Mike Fallaise, who placed fifth in the full marathon, traveled from Windsor, Ontario, to compete.

“I came because it is a last chance qualifier for Boston,” he said. “But (Athens) is a great city and has been a nice little vacation.”

With an unofficial time of three hours and 15 seconds, Fallaise qualified for the Boston Marathon.

A father-daughter duo ran the half-marathon together to test each other’s endurance. Teresa Dimiduk, a 22-year-old OU graduate student, and her dad, Dennis Dimiduk, trained for the race together.

“It has been a great experience, and we had great weather,” Dennis Dimiduk said.

Many OU students also participated in the marathon and half-marathon. Seth Nickolas, a sophomore majoring in computer engineering, ran in the half-marathon for the second time as part of the Air Force ROTC and finished with an unofficial time of one hour and 28 minutes. He said that running with his Air Force ROTC group and training with his friends inspired him to run again this year.

Jordan Templeton, a sophomore majoring in management information systems and economics, finished the half-marathon in one hour and 37 minutes.

“It’s a fun race; there are good stations, and it’s really pretty,” Templeton said.

In the marathon, the top three finishers in the men’s, women’s and over-40 divisions received cash prizes of $110, $90 or $80. In the half-marathon, the top three runners in each category won $70, $60 and $50. Additionally, the top male and female finishers received laurel wreaths flown in from Athens, Greece, Mullins said. All finishers in the full marathon and the half-marathon received a medal.