Jamie Gibson had no idea she won.

When she crossed the finish line of Meridian’s eighth-annual Magnolia Marathon Saturday morning, she said she was just happy to be done.

“This woman just told me to stick around for the awards, and I asked if had won anything,” Gibson said. “She said I was the first female. It was really exciting. I’ve never won a marathon before.”

Adding a few seconds to her winning time of 3 hours, 38 minutes, 17 seconds was a quick, unplanned stop at her car, coincidentally parked along the course, just over halfway through.

“I was chafing really bad in my underarm,” she said, laughing. “I kept asking people if they had vaseline and no one had vaseline. When I came around the corner and saw my car, I was like, ‘I have vaseline in my car,’ so I stopped at my car.”

Gibson finished her first Magnolia Marathon eight minutes ahead of runner-up Kristen Gerlach. Meridian’s race is No. 24 on the Kansas City resident’s journey to run a marathon in all 50 states.

For men’s winner Alan Barnette, a lead did not come until the race’s midpoint.

For the first several miles, Barnette stayed alongside eventual runner-up James Sullivan, while Meridian native and first-time marathoner Ryan Gressett stayed ahead of the pack for the early miles and eventually finished third. Barett eventually overtook the lead between mile 12 and 13 and gradually distanced himself from the other runners.

Barnette was met by his family moments after finishing, which he said made this event even more special.

“It was pretty neat seeing this one standing right there,” Barnette said, gesturing to his daughter. “You don’t get to see your family at the bigger races right at the end.”

Hailing from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Barnette won his first Magnolia Marathon by five minutes with a time of 3:00:26, more than four minutes quicker than last year’s winner.

“You never know until the end if you’re going to win it,” he said. “You can always cramp up at the end of these things and just not go anywhere, so until you cross the finish line you don’t really know.”

Men’s half marathon winner Stephen Hack said he knew pretty soon after he started that not only was the race his, but that a course record was well within his grasp.

Hack took an early lead and pulled well ahead of his competition. His time of 1:19:43 broke the previous half-marathon course record by two and a half minutes. He finished 15 seconds faster than his goal in what was also his first Magnolia Half Marathon.

“I’m not going to pretend I didn’t look it up and know what it was coming in, but it’s pretty exciting. It’s the first time I’ve ever won a race,” said Hack, who is stationed at Columbus Air Force Base. “It was a really tough course with all the hills. They were monsters, but it balanced out.”

Danielle Patterson of Tuscaloosa claimed the women’s half marathon with a time of 1:31:41. She said her main goal wasn’t to win the event, but she’s not complaining about it.

“When we started, there weren’t a lot of women around me. I tried not to look back too much, but if there was a wide turn I’d check back, and there wasn’t anybody super close, but you don’t really have it in the bag until you cross the finish line.”