Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

In a race with against over 45,300 other people, including one Chilean miner, Gebre Gebremariam finishes first in the 2010 ING New York City Marathon Sunday.

Gebremariam is a 26-year-old first time marathoner from Ethiopia. The 5-10, 123-pound Gebremariam, is the first rookie marathoner to win the race in 27 years.  He finished with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 14 seconds. That’s an average pace of 4:53 per mile — for 26.2 miles!

Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai  finished second, in 2:09:17. American Meb Keflezighi, the 2009 NYC Marathon champion, finished in sixth place with a time of 2:11:30.

In the women’s race, Edna Kiplagat of Kenya came in first with a time of 2:28:20. American Shalane Flanagan, the bronze medalist at the Beijing Olympics two years ago, crossed the finish line second with a time of 2:28:40.

A Chilean miner who jogged miles (kilometers) underground while waiting to be rescued joined some of the world’s best marathoners and thousands of other runners in the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Edison Pena started off in Staten Island at 9:40 a.m., hoping to cover the 26.2-mile–course through the city’s five boroughs in six hours. About an hour into the run, a grimace crossed his face as he slowed a bit. But cheered on by spectators, he kept running and by shortly after noon, “The Runner” – as his fellow miners had nicknamed him – had covered the route in Brooklyn and made his way into Queens, about 15 miles of the race.

An unsmiling Pena, wearing an official New York Marathon cap and with his left knee bound in black, kept up a steady pace while surrounded by supporters.

“First, I want to run this marathon, but secondly, I’d like to motivate those people who aren’t running the marathon to do so in the future,” he said before the race through a translator, jumping up and down to warm up. “I also want to especially motivate young children and youth to run because running makes you free.”

The 34-year-old was among the 33 miners rescued last month after spending 69 days trapped 2,300 feet underground by a cave-in. An avid runner, he jogged several miles every day through tunnels.

He had cut his steel-tipped electrician’s boots down to ankle height so he could train each morning and afternoon along the rocky, muddy 1,000-yard corridor where the men were trapped in stifling heat and humidity.

He built up strength by dragging a large wooden pallet that was attached to a cord tied to his waist.

NYC Marathon officials heard about Pena’s subterranean training and planned to invite him as an honored guest. But he wanted to actually run the race.

Pena, runner No. 7127, joined about 45,000 runners from 50 states and more than 100 countries, all looking to cross the finish line in Central Park. It is his first trip outside of Chile.

The most Pena ever ran in the mine was 6 or 7 miles a day – sometimes singing Elvis Presley songs in-between.

Pena says he ran to clear his head, to push away his anxiety. He always kept his faith, he said. “I always had faith to keep fighting, to stand up to things, to do what could be done.”

In New York, he would take things in stride too, having had only a few days to consider a course he would cover with a knee injury suffered in the mine collapse.

Pena hasn’t competed in years as an amateur runner. Since the rescue, he covered 6.5 miles as part of a team triathlon event in Chile on Oct. 24.