Local athlete, Nick Carling, has finished second in Sunday's Townsville Running Festival half-marathon, exceeding his own expectations with a podium finish and collecting a trophy and $500 for his efforts.

Carling finished in a touch over 1 hour and 15 minutes in a field of over 350 athletes, just behind eventual winner, 19 year old Daniel Charles, who finish 53 seconds ahead.

"It was very unexpected. I was hoping to do about 1 hour 20 (minutes), that was the ultimate best that I was going to do because I hadn't really trained for it," Carling said.

Meanwhile another local athlete has done the region proud by completing the 42km marathon event at the Festival.

Alastair Spence, competing in his first marathon, finished in a very respectable 21st place overall in a time of 3 hours and 23 minutes.

Carling and Spence now have their sites set on the half-marathon event of the Great Barrier Reef Marathon Festival in November.