Brazilian woman makes history at Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon
A Brazilian woman made history at Disney World winning the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon this past weekend.
Giovanna Martins is believed to be the first woman to be the overall winner of a major Disney half marathon race (more than 10,000 male and female runners) and the first runDisney female runner to reach the finish line first in the 13.1-mile race.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time a female runner has won a major half marathon race that included both male and female runners,” race director Jon Hughes said.
The 34-year-old runner from Salto, Brazil beat out second-place finisher, Paul Graham of Whitehaven, UK (1:19:22) winning the race by six seconds with a time of 1:19:16. Joseph Dreher of Melbourne, Florida took third place with a time of 1:20:27.
“To be the first, now that’s historic for Brazil, it’s historic for this race,” Martins said. ” It’s a story I’ll tell my family, friends and students. I’ll never forget it.”
Martins won the women’s division of last year’s Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon and broke her personal record for the race. She is the only female runner to win four runDisney races at Walt Disney World Resort – winning the women’s division at the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2015 and 2017.
Martins was one of 35,000 runners who participated in the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend, which included a 5K, 10K and kids races and the Half Marathon.
(The photos below are from Disney)