Windy weather favors Lemoncello in Las Vegas Marathon — VIDEO

Andrew Lemoncello grew up in St. Andrews, Scotland, where he would regularly run six-mile loops on the Old Course and literally dodge golf balls in the blustery weather.

That experience came in handy Sunday night for the Scottish distance runner, who won the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon in dominant fashion despite battling fierce winds that forced a throng of 40,000 runners to dodge flying cups, cardboard and even traffic cones along the course on the Strip.

"You've got to have quick feet, man," Lemoncello said, half-jokingly, after crossing the finish line in front of the Mirage in 2:21:47, almost 13 minutes ahead of marathon runner-up Tommy Rivers Puzey (2:34:36).

"I come from a really windy place and I've never been in a windier race than tonight, so that says a lot," said Lemoncello, 33.

A 2008 Olympian for Great Britain in the steeplechase, Lemoncello was paced for the first 16 miles by elite American marathoner Brett Gotcher, who then jumped into the support truck, leaving his training partner to run against the wind alone for the last 10 miles.

"At that point, you're playing mental games with yourself just to get to each mile," he said. "It's always hard running on your own."

The lights and energy of the Strip carried Lemoncello to the finish.

"When you turn the corner there with three miles to go and you see all the lights, that makes it a lot easier," he said. "It was phenomenal coming down the finish. You want to have a lot of support at the end and that's exactly what I got."

A former Florida State standout who lives and trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., Lemoncello is hoping to break the 2:14:00 marathon standard needed to qualify for Great Britain's team in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

He hopes to do that in January in Houston after having abandoned his plan to run a 2:14:00 pace for as long as possible Sunday night.

"We got to eight miles and kind of shut it down because it was ferocious out there," he said. "We were getting blown from one side of the road to the other. So I just tried to finish and I'm exhausted now."

Rivers Puzey, wearing a red beard and a bandana, also lives in Flagstaff and is friends with Lemoncello and Gotcher, who he said are in another league.

While virtually every runner raved about the experience of running under the lights on the Strip, the soft-spoken Rivers Puzey said it shook him up.

"It was loud. It was actually hard for me," he said. "It's really calming in Flagstaff. Running, you kind of do out there for solace. To come to a place like this, to be completely honest, I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack the whole time.

"There was just so much going on. It was great. There was a lot of stimulus, but it was intense."

Runners from all 50 states and 64 countries took part in Sunday's marathon, half-marathon and 10K. Among women, Williana Rojas traveled from her native Venezuela and ended up winning the marathon, edging Canadian Jen Annett by 19 seconds (3:08:18 to 3:08:37).

Rojas, who led from start to finish, had tears in her eyes after winning only the second marathon she's ever entered. The 32-year-old has been running for less than three years.

Through a translator, Rojas said she didn't expect to win and joked that the cold weather might've made her run faster.

"The race was beautiful, but it was too windy," she said. "We're from the tropics and this is way too cold for me."

Annett, a 30-year-old professional triathlete, said she didn't realize she was within striking distance of Rojas until it was too late.

"I actually had no idea she was right there. I thought she was long gone," she said. "If I ran a little harder, I probably could've had her. Honestly, I didn't think she was that close.

"I had a little bit of an Achilles injury a week ago that flared up and I didn't want to be stupid. I came here for fun."

Annett hails from blustery Penticton, British Columbia, but said Sunday's race was the windiest she's experienced.

"That was an insane wind," she said. "It is crazy windy where I'm from, but this was unbelievable. It took your breath away."

Not that Annett was complaining. She loved the atmosphere.

"This is by far the coolest, most fun race I've ever done," she said. "I'm definitely coming back."

— Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him: @tdewey33