Maria Morales had reason to hurry through her 13.1-mile run Sunday morning. The Fort Lauderdale lifeguard had to

By hustling to victory in the Publix Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon gave the Fort Lauderdale lifeguard a couple of hours to catch her breath and shower before manning her tower on the beach a couple of block from the finish line.

"I'm very tired. I didn't train for this race because I have a knee injury," said Morales, who led the women in 1:26:09. She ran with a brace on her left knee due to the inflammation behind the kneecap that caused her to limit her training.

The hot, humid conditions took a toll on the record field of 4,450 runners competing in the seventh running of the marathon and half marathon. The 880 in the full marathon faced the challenge of running the majority of the race with the sun beating down.

Tom Beekhuysen, of Herndon, Va., won the marathon in 2:54:13. It was the second marathon victory in two tries for the 48-year-old mechanical engineer who began running two years ago.

"I was pathetic. I couldn't ski with my kids. I said I'm going ot be fat and out of shape the rest of my life or make a concerted effort," Beekhuysen said. "I lost 60 pounds. I got in such good shape running to lose weight I started doing road races. Now here I am."

Lise Wessels, of Victoria, B.C, won her first women's marathon title in 3:10:48.

Mike Fisher, of Brookline, Mass., was the overall winner of the half marathon in 1:09:38. He finished more than 4 minutes ahead of Kevin Brown of Boca Raton.

"I'm from Boston. I'm not really used to this humdity, which made it tough. It caught up to me in the second half [of the race]."