BATON ROUGE — The 15th annual Louisiana Marathon took place Sunday morning, offering runners the chance to run through iconic city landmarks and LSU's campus. 

The race, held annually on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, featured a marathon, a half-marathon, a quarter-marathon, a 5k race and a kids' marathon.

People from all over the region came out to enjoy the race along with the festivities, including Ashley Anyanwu of Beaumont, Texas, a mother who gave birth only four months ago. 

"I got cleared [to run] in November, so in December I began my training," Anyanwu shared. Anyanwu, who ran the half-marathon, said the best part of running is, "the clarity, just making sure mentally and physically you're taking care of your body and training your mind to be able push through those limits."

The marathon winner, 27-year-old elementary school counselor Jacob Plocher of Gautier, Mississippi, finished with a time of 2 hours 28 minutes and 49 seconds at a pace of about 5 minutes and 30 seconds per mile.

Plocher told WBRZ that he's been running for the past 14 years. 

"I've ran like 12 marathons and I love this one," Plocher said. "It's all about visualisation and being grateful for everything you do. The training's the hard part; this is just the fun part. You get to celebrate all the training you've done."

Plocher also shared his love for running and hopes to inspire people to pick up the sport. 

"It's the best culture out here. I've done a lot of other sports, but people here are always supporting each other, no matter what."

Plocher said he plans to celebrate his win by taking his son to the Audubon Zoo.