The 35-year-old finished 13^th out of 6208 entrants in the iconic event, with a blistering, personal-best time of two hours, 26 minutes and 55 seconds.

Callum Drake, the 12^th quickest entrant, crossed the line six seconds faster than Daye while the winner, Timothy Kiplagat Ronoh, finished in a course-record two hours, nine minutes and 12 seconds.

Daye - a seasoned long-distance runner - has completed more than 50 marathons but Sunday's effort was almost three minutes faster than his previous best.

"That's the fastest I've done in a marathon before and 13^th in a field like the Melbourne Marathon is the best result I've probably ever had in terms of placings too which is pretty cool. I was rapt," Daye said.

"If this happens to be the fastest time I ever run I'd be really happy with it."

Daye was running around 20 kilometres a day in the two months leading up to the race.

He was hoping to achieve something close to his result but didn't expect it.

Conditions on Sunday were favourable for a strong performance.

"It was a good day for it," he said. "It was still, the wind was breathless. It was pretty cool. You couldn't have asked for a better day."

Originally from Melbourne, Daye moved to Port Fairy around three years ago and runs an architecture business with his wife called Dot Architects.

The Moyne-based runner was unsure of his future racing plans but was certain he would try and defend his Port Fairy Marathon title early next year.

He won the inaugural event in February this year with a time of two hours and 29 minutes.

"I'm not sure if I want to commit to try and go faster again because it's a lot of time I have to put in," he said.

"I'll definitely be running the Port Fairy Marathon which is going to be in February next year.

"It's a bit tougher though than Melbourne, just the course and not as many people around. But it was an awesome event so I plan to keep doing that forever, as long as we're down here that's for sure."

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