BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than 7,000 runners competed in the 2018 Buffalo Marathon, but many were only competing against themselves.

"I was racing against the clock, because I was trying to go for qualifier time so obviously I wanted to win, but I was going for a time," said Tim Chichester, the men's winner of the Buffalo Marathon.

Chichester crossed the finish line at 2:18:06. The women's winner, Laura Anderson, finished at 2:57:06. 

Just after crossing the finish line at this marathon, runners were thinking about their next step.

"I have a goal to reach, I want to do 55 marathons by the time I'm 55, so this was my 48th marathon," said a runner from Toronto.

For Dan Ho from New Jersey, it was his 200th marathon. He's already completed marathons in all 50 states and next up is Germany.

"I finished the 50 states, all of the United States and some of Canada, and in September I'm going to Germany for the Berlin Marathon," he said.

But even if some runners fell short of their goals for this race, they had fan bases cheering them on, win or lose.

"I had my family there, my wife, my mom and dad, my brother is actually still running right now so I mean it's been a phenomenal experience today," said Tessa Kufel from Lancaster, who ran in her first marathon.