NASHUA – Runners from teenagers to senior citizens, from beginners to seasoned marathoners, streamed through the city’s downtown and into numerous neighborhoods on Sunday, together making the second annual Gate City Marathon and Relay as successful as its debut event a year ago.

The idea for the three-pronged race – it offers a half-marathon, full-marathon and team relay – came about following the demise in 2013 of the Applefest Half Marathon, a signature event of the Nashua-based Gate City Striders running club.

Sunday’s brisk breeze and occasional gusts brought a chill to the air, making it a bit uncomfortable for spectators but more desirable for runners than, say, Saturday’s warm temperatures and bright sun.

In the end, the top male and female finishers in the full marathon turned out to be from Baltimore and Unionville, Conn., respectively.

Kevin Ford, 28, topped the field with a time of 2:50:35.7, while Tracy Deeter, the top female finisher and seventh overall, came in at 3:00:13.4.

But Nashua residents swept the top three spots in the half-marathon, with 18-year-old Christopher Fischer finishing first at 1:24:00.2, roughly 49 seconds ahead of second-place Sandra Van Den Heuvel, a 24-year-old Nashuan who was also the top female finisher.

Alex Chen, 15, also of Nashua, was third at 1:25:33.6, while Yuki Chorney, 44, of Mont Vernon, was the second female finisher at 1:35 even.

As for the relay, Fleet Feet Junior Elite, a team of five 14-year-olds from around the region, beat out the second-place team by roughly seven minutes in winning the race in just over two hours, 39 minutes.

Fleet Feet comprises Carson Bottomley, Ryan Devine, David Cook, Caroline Fischer and Dakota Somero, according to the posted results.

A good-sized team of volunteers on bicycles patrolled the clover-leaf shaped course, which encompasses five loops, of which the first and last, at 5.4 miles each, are much the same.

Main Street just north of City Hall Plaza was marathon central on Sunday, the spot where all three races began simultaneously at 8 a.m.

The only exception were full-marathon participants who stepped off at 7 a.m. to make sure they would finish by the 1:30 p.m. deadline.

Meanwhile, the Striders, at 800 members the largest running club in the state, chose Nashua for their new project – because it made the most sense.

"This is the largest running event that Nashua ever had," Striders president Tom Cassetty said previously. The Striders, he added, decided to "go big … and this is what we went for."

Longtime Striders member and spokesman Skip Cleaver called the event "a celebration of running … a race organized by runners for runners" that involves "a relatively flat and varied course."

While noting that it’s unfortunate that the Striders’ Applefest race in Hollis came to an end, Cleaver said the group is optimistic that the Gate City Marathon and Relay represents "a new beginning" that "will keep runners coming back year after year."

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.