Stephen Bayliss and Monique Grassrieder, winners of the V Music Marathon Festival

Image: LanzaroteDeportiva.com

Puerto del Carmen, under a radiant sun and with a festive musical atmosphere, brought together nearly half a thousand runners of all ages on Saturday afternoon to participate in the fifth edition of the Music Marathon Festival. The main category of the event, the 21.1-kilometer half marathon, was won by Stephen Bayliss and Monique Grassrieder, proclaiming themselves absolute winners of the Music Marathon Festival. The race was held in an unbeatable musical atmosphere, with nine live music stages along the entire route.

The first to start were the children divided into two groups. On the one hand, those under 10 years old and on the other, those ranging from 10 to 18. All participants, regardless of their position and how they did it, since there were even participants with skates, received their award as finalists of the event. An entertaining race in which the youngest had to cover a distance of 800 meters and the rest a mile of about 1,600 meters.

Afterwards, the bulk of the competition started, where adults faced a 5-kilometer route, a 10-kilometer race and another of 21. The 5-kilometer race was taken by many as a walk that went from the Hotel Fariones to the Hotel San Antonio and back. Others took it as a sporting event and squeezed their potential to the maximum, as did the paratriathlete Lionel Morales who, with a time of 22:25, crossed the finish line in third place. Lionel continues with his preparation for the classification phase to be at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016.

In the 1/4 Marathon category, the winner was the Spaniard Víctor Sánchez García who used a time of 37:53, followed by the German Thomas Voit with a time of 40:09, while the third on the podium was the American Mike Vanderroost. The one from the state of Missouri used a time of 41:01. Regarding the women's category, the winner was the German Jenny Schulz who crossed the finish line with a time of 40:53, followed by her compatriot Annet Finger with a time of 43:11. The athlete who completed the podium was Melanie Mack with 44:23, overtaking the first Spaniard, María Cristina Molina Fernández who came in fourth with 50:47. 

The emotional note was set by Germán Fernández who, at 81 years old, was the oldest athlete to do the test and used a time of 1:26:18 to do the 10 kilometers, under the ovation of a boisterous fans who throughout the afternoon was encouraged by the music of the nine stages that were on the Avenida de Las Playas. Also Anthony, who ran as a team with a joliette, started the applause of the public demonstrating his good sense of humor, since the team was disguised as the group Kiss.

In the 1/2 Marathon the fight was very interesting in the fight for the first place between the professional triathlete Stephen Bayliss and the Austrian Daniel Herlbauer. Finally, Bayliss managed to win by 10 seconds difference, using a time of 1:14:24 by 1:14:34 of Herlbauer. The third classified of the ½ marathon was Rait Ratasepp with a time of 1:15:27. For its part, in the women's category, Monique Grassrieder was the fastest runner with 1:30:32, just under 20 seconds from Katrine Trolle, while Lee Charles Burton was third with 1:31:40.

The fifth edition of the Music Marathon Festival concluded with the awards ceremony, and with a live concert that was enjoyed by the participants and all their companions. Ideal atmosphere that was lived on Saturday afternoon on the Avenida de Las Playas in Puerto del Carmen, combining sport and good music.