VALENCIA — Carly Clark saw the Pittsburgh Marathon as a challenge.

She conquered it — along with everyone else in her age group.

Clark, 19, a Valencia resident and 2011 Mars High School graduate, competed in her first marathon last Sunday in Pittsburgh and wound up winning her age group with a time of three hours, 44.46 minutes.

There were approximately 30 females in her age group — 19-under — among the 2,300 women on the course. Clark finished 116th among women overall.

“I was actually mad because I had to walk for a bit after 21 miles,” Clark said. “My left side started cramping up.

“I didn’t want to walk at all, but I knew I broke four hours and that’s what I wanted to do.”

She didn’t find out she won her age group until later. She didn’t learn she placed 116th overall until the next day.

“I couldn’t believe either of those things,” Clark said. “That was well beyond what I expected.”

Clark recently completed her freshman year at Penn State, where she is majoring in nutrition and competing on the PSU club cross country team. She ran track and cross country in high school.

As for competing on the Nittany Lions’ varsity cross country team?

“Those people are ridiculous ... I wouldn’t stand a chance there,” she said.

Clark qualified for the national club cross country meet, held in North Carolina in November. Runners qualified for the national meet through a points system. Points are accumulated through doing well at various invitational meets during the season.

A sprained meniscus in her left knee curtailed Clark’s senior cross country season at Mars. She also played basketball and ran track for the Planets.

She reached the WPIAL Championships one year as a member of the Mars 4x800 relay team.

“I won a bunch of medals at various invitational meets in high school. Those were my highlights,” Clark said.

Now she has another one.

Clark began training for the Pittsburgh Marathon in February, running at least five miles a day six days a week leading up to the marathon.

“It was tough juggling my schedule to find time to run like that every day, but I did it,” she said.

Her longest run during training was 20 miles, which she did a little more than a month before the marathon.

Clark had no training partners nor a training coach. She ran into a couple of her Penn State teammates during the marathon and chatted briefly.

Otherwise, she ran on her own.

“I looked up some training styles on the internet, but that was about it,” Clark said. “I’ve always loved running and I have the willpower to finish things.

“I would have walked the final 10 miles if I had to, just to cross the finish line.”

Now that she’s done well as a rookie marathoner, she is curious to see how she’ll do as a veteran.

“Definitely. I want to pursue this,” Clark said. “I’ll keep training by running local 5Ks. I’d love to run Boston, New York, Disney, all of the big ones.

“I’ll probably do a couple of longer runs while training next time, but I was very happy with how this turned out.”

One other Butler County runner — Dean Rippee, 56, of Saxonburg — won his age group. He finished first in the men’s 55-59 division and was 150th overall among male runners with a time of 3:12.56.

Other county area runners finishing among the top 200 in their gender at the Pittsburgh Marathon follow:

MenTom Gramc, 25, Cranberry Township, 49th in 2:54.20Brian Thomas, 36, Cranberry Toqwnship, 52ndMichael Dreves, 36, Grove City, 114thDan Carlino, 29, Cranberry Townsdhip, 122ndBen Hoffman, 18, Grove City, 131stDavid Rod Vest, 43, Cranberry Township, 134thyDean Rippee, 56, Saxonburg, 150thTrent Wilson, 34, Cranberry Township, 173rd

WomenSusan Dreves, Grove City, 40th in 3:27.18Heather Melzer, 43, Mars, 70thLori Piedimonte, 48, Cranberry Township, 102ndBarb Spreng Volek, 50, Freeport, 125thDana Longwell, 43, Seven Fields, 155th