Covering 26.2 miles for the first time, Will Donelson won the 45th running of the Andrew Jackson Marathon – which incorporated downtown Jackson – Saturday.

Donelson, a native of McLeansboro, Illinois, and a senior at Union University, turned in a time of 2:59:13 to win the oldest marathon in the state of Tennessee – which is also a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon.

“A friend of mine, Jake Whitney, who is also a senior at Union, was running the half-marathon (13.1 miles), and pacing me,” Donelson said. “I was running really well up to the 23 mile mark, but I hit a wall. I was glad no one was pushing me the last mile.”

One of 77 competitors in the marathon field, Donelson ran cross country four years at Union.

Donelson, who is majoring in pre-med, was looking to run a 6:50 pace per mile, but used house money when realizing his 6:40 pace per mile was better than what he had hoped for.

“My longest training run leading up to this race was nine miles, so yes, I guess you could say I got away with one,” Donelson said. “This is a great feeling and it qualified me to run Boston in 2018.”

Nashville’s Brian Wright (3:13:09) finished second, Jackson’s Karl Studtmann (3:18:39) was third.

Christina Marin from Allston, Massachusetts won the women’s marathon in 3:30:10.

In the half-marathon, Tallon Scott from Nashville ran 1:20:54 to take first overall. He was followed by Bolivar’s Shayne Fawcett (1:20:59) and Bailey Bell (1:21:09) from Jackson.

Kirsten Sass (1:30:11) from McKenzie won the women’s half-marathon.

The half-marathon had 285 entrants.

(PHOTO: Will Donelson, winner, Andrew Jackson Marathon

David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomas@WNWS 
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