Who won the Oakland marathon today?

First place in the 26-mile race went to Tegenu Beru, 29, an Ethiopian  who spent five years as a professional runner in Japan before moving to San Jose, CA in 2009. Beru drive himself up to the race, parked the car and got out and ran. His time? 2:30.08. His nearest competitors, Jesus Campos, of King City, and Ian Sharman, of San Jose, finished more than seven minutes behind him.

The first place woman was 26- year old Anna Bretan, a delivery nurse from Berkeley who made the 26 miles in 2:53:19, significantly behind the men. Lori Buratto, of Spokane Valley, Wash., and Suet-Fei Li, of Sunnyvale, placed behind her.

Will the race be back for a third year in Oakland?  Absolutely. According to Lee Corrigan, things are steadily improving. "We're up about 20 percent in sponsorships, "he said. "And I'm committed to keep this event going for the foreseeable future."

This year's Oakland Marathon had 7,500 runners, 1,200 in the full marathon, and is reported to be bringing roughly $2MM in revenue into Oakland.