A couple of months short of his 52nd birthday, the Douglas all-rounder claimed his first marathon win at the 14th attempt with his fifth fastest time.

Having trained almost daily since his last marathon outing at London in April, Lambden was pleased with his finishing time of 2 hr 47 min 49 sec on a less than perfect day with strong headwinds between Bride and St Jude's and intermittent showers of heavy rain.

'I was aiming to break 2:50 so sub 2:48 on a tough course in less than favourable conditions is very pleasing,' said the former British 30km record holder for race walking who was forced to quit that sport because of a back injury shortly after claiming a top-10 finish in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.

Lambden's ultimate goal is to break his personal best marathon time of 2:43.06 at Amsterdam this October, shortly after his birthday.

His training regime for the past 16 weeks has been relentless. Since three days after London, he has trained or raced every day with the exception of Saturday — when he gave himself a well-earned day off to rest for Sunday's 26-miler.

'I didn't slacken my pace during the week coming up to this event and I ran 10 miles under the hour on Thursday morning. I then had another fast run on Friday.'

He led the race virtually every step of the way. By the Dog Mills, a little over two miles out from the start, he was more than 200 yards clear of his nearest challengers.

By the three-mile mark he had stretched that to 70 seconds and at the top of Bride Hills he was in a commanding position.

A strong tailwind had eased the strain on the climb that always catches out the unwary who wrongly believe the northern plains of the Island are pan-flat.

But the wind assistance turned to an energy-sapping disadvantage as the record number of 101 runners in the marathon and additional field of 211 in the SalClear Half-Marathon that started 30 minutes later at 9.30am.

Heavy rain hit the marathon runners head-on in the face as they also took the brunt of the wind on the undulating stretch between Andreas and St Jude's — the bulk of the one-lap runners (and walkers) were hit sideways-on climbing Bride Hill, making it doubly unpleasant.

Lambden reached 10 miles in 63 minutes (clocking sub-6m 30s for each of the miles with the exception of mile four to Bride when he did 6.33 on the hill section!).

Passing the entrance to Ramsey FC's Ballacloan Stadium at the halfway point in an estimated 1:22.40, he was bang on course for his first marathon win and his goal of a sub-2:50 — though by this time he was secretly contemplating something considerably quicker as he was consistently hitting 6 min 10 sec miles.

Such was his pace that his lead over the rest of the field was measured in miles — not minutes.

Lap two saw the marathon runners enjoying slightly improved conditions, with patches of pleasantly warm sunshine instead of heavy showers of rain. But the wind remained strong and persistent.

Again marginally slower than 6m 30s for the hilly mile at Bride, Lambden hit 20 in 2:06.22, but all of a sudden his pace dropped to 6.50 in the wind at the 21st mile and then 6.37 and 6.51 for the 25th and 26th on the long, flat stretches approaching Ramsey on the Jurby Road.

But the end was very much in sight and it was clear with 1.2 miles to go that a sub-2:50 was more than achievable.

Looking pale and, it has to be said, quite frail seconds after he crossed the finish line, Lambden soon recovered and was his usual chatty and enthusiatic self within five minutes.

Athletics statistician that he is, it was Murray himself who suggested that he was probably the oldest winner in the history of the event.

It wasn't the only record he achieved on the day as he also eased past Jimmy Bell's 2000 record for the 50-54 age category of 2:49.12.

Albeit Murray Lambden's first outright marathon success, it was his second Isle of Man Marathon Championship win in three years having also claimed the title in 2006 with a superior time of 2:56.38 (then under-50).

Paul Curtis, who can see the Isle of Man on a clear day from his home in Whitehaven, Cumbria, finished second in his first attempt at the event in a time of 2 hr 58 min precisely.

A member of the Northern Veterans' Club (incorporating veterans from across Manchester, Lancashire and the North West of England), he revealed that he had only arrived in the Island at 1am the same morning after his original ferry crossing time was altered by 11 hours.

'I was so pumped up I couldn't sleep,' he said.

Curtis was 10 minutes slower than London this year when he recorded a pb of 2:48, but started steadily when he was initially fifth.

He only moved into second place shortly after the 19th mile ahead of local man Rob Sellors, who tired towards the end. 'I took it on into the wind,' said the Cumbrian.

Mike Garrett of Onchan finished a good third considering his recent training has been restricted by injury. 'I knew it would be hard,' he said later. 'It's the first time I've run this course in competition, but I have not done it quicker in training so I have to be happy with 3:05.'

He moved into the final podium spot after also passing Rob Sellors between the 19th and 20th mile markers.

Poor Sellors dropped from second to ninth in the final six miles. 'I set off too quickly,' said the school headmaster. 'I was going for a sub-three-hour time but I have not done enough speed training to get my heart rate high enough.

'I really struggled in the last few miles and was reduced to a walk-run-walk-run strategy to simply get me home.

'I don't suppose doing a 60-mile ultra-marathon three weeks before this helped me!'

Sellors helped raise a considerable amount of cash for the IoM Children's Centre when he ran the Manx coastline in a clockwise direction from Port St Mary to Port Cornaa in early July.

He was overtaken in the final few yards of Sunday's race by fellow IoM Veteran Athletes' Club member Paul Cubbon. The regular triathlete was in his first marathon which was good training for his aim on completing and IronMan next year.

The next local home was fellow Police Inspector Simon Lowe in 12th spot, while Elizabeth McGowan - an Island resident for 18 years - produced an excellent run in only her third marathon (she has completed both the New York and Boston events in the past nine months) to finish 27th overall and third woman in a pb of 3:37.57.

Had she known beforehand that she would have qualified for the IoM Championship by simply ticking a box on her entry form she would also have claimed the title that was retained by Karen Lawrie (nee Brew) - who improved on her personal best by four minutes with a time of 3:50.03 just a few weeks after completing the Parish Walk.

The first woman to finish was Glasgow based Rebecca Johnson, originally of Kent who, by pure coincidence, is staying in Murray and Marie Lambden's flat this week in Douglas.

Recently affiliated to Bellahouston Road Runners in Glasgow, she clocked a very good time of 3:08.28 for fifth overall and the best overall result by a female runner in the IoM Marathon for many a year.

Gap year student Claire Danson of Odiham in Hampshire, like Rebecca Johnson in only her second ever marathon, finished 15th in 3:19.18, having initially registered a 3:49 finish in the extremely tough South Downs event at Chichester.

For the record, multi-marathon runner Steve Edwards finished his 454th event in seventh position (3:11.17) and ultra-marathon man Peter Ferris of Northern Ireland his 312th in 22nd spot (3:33.51). Both aim to complete 500 marathons.

More on them and Manx born blind runner Michael Ogle in Friday's Manx Independent.