Race Weekend when each capped three races in three days with impressive performances in yesterday's gruelling marathon.

Smith, going through what he calls `base training' in his preparation for the 1996 Olympics, set out on his first marathon yesterday with few hopes of a lofty second-place finish as experienced campaigners Sergei Krestyaninov, the defending champion, and Scott Bagley both failed to last the 26.2-mile course.

The big crowd at the finish saved two of its biggest cheers of the day for local residents Smith and Kynoch as they crossed the finish line on Front Street in 2:37:45 and 3:21:23 respectively.

"I'm very happy to have completed it in not such a bad time in windy conditions,'' Smith said of his first effort at the long distance. "I did the mile, 10-K and the marathon. I knew I was going to complete it.

"I had my mind set on being the first local, I wanted that, but as far as second overall I didn't expect that.'' Smith, the Island's premier middle-distance runner, surprized few when he was the first local to finish in Saturday's 10-K. But some eyebrows were raised at his marathon performance. So pleased was he that he intends to do it again.

"Most definitely,'' he said quickly. "This was all part of the test. If I wasn't in shape I would have gotten injured. But I had to be in shape, and I showed it by completing this marathon in good form.

"I had no time set in my mind. This was my first marathon, so I didn't really know how to run it. I took it easy the first 13, ran the hills easy and stretched it out down hills and came through nice.

"It was quite windy on the second lap at North Shore. There were some lonely times out there, I was by myself in a lot of areas.'' Sandra Mewett was the first female finisher as she was third amongst the women and 13th overall in 3:08:48, which was well off her personal best of 2:37:15, which she achieved in Houston, Texas, in 1989.

But while Mewett passed up the 10-K on Saturday to concentrate on the marathon, Kynoch took up the challenge of competing in all three races. At the end she was one exhausted woman.

"I don't think I would do it again, though,'' admitted Kynoch of the prospect of doing three races again in three days. "I found it to be a challenge, that's why I set out to do it in the first place.

"I didn't have any type of goals for the marathon, just set out at a conservative pace and tried to hold that. There wasn't a time in my mind, I just wanted to run 26 miles and get it over with.'' Kynoch said she found the conditions a little better than in the last two years she has done the marathon. "It was very humid and with the wind I tried to tuck in behind people like Giorgio (Zanol). I just tried to run a smart race and get through it.

"I'm really pleased with my time, l really am. I like the marathon and would like to go under three hours eventually. That wasn't a goal for me this weekend. I know people have said that but that was unrealistic. I didn't feel I was in that kind of condition.'' Mewett, Bermuda's top female marathoner, found the going tough against the wind on North Shore. It was the conditions that made her decide against competing in both the 10-K and marathon.

"I very seriously considered dropping out after the South Shore but I just have this thing that I can't drop out,'' Mewett said. "If you do it one time you're going to do it again and again, so I don't want to do it.'' On this new course Mewett was not thinking about any particular time. "On this course you have to take it as you find it,'' she pointed out. "If you put pressure on yourself with a time then there could be disappointment and that's too much to deal with.'' Margaret Young Lever was the third local female, 27th overall in 3:27:04.

More than 300 volunteers contributed to smooth running of International Race Weekend.

KAVIN SMITH -- On the final steps of a gruelling, but rewarding, weekend of road running.