Not only did she arrive in the country a day before the event, she hadn't even prepared to run the full marathon and didn't think for a second she'd be cruising across the finish line 16 minutes ahead of Dubbo's Michelle Gailey on Sunday morning.

"I only got two hours sleep last night," Zakrzewski said.

"I wasn't going to do this race. I was going to do the Sixfoot track marathon next weekend and my plan was to come out here and spend a week recovering from the flight.

"My friend was running the marathon here and asked me if I wanted to come out and I was just going to do the 5km and then they told me I could run the full marathon if I wanted to."

It's hard to tell if it was the overcast conditions, the new track or Joasia's Scottish porridge that she had for breakfast but one way or another, her two hours 49 minutes and 14 seconds time was the fastest she'd clocked in over four years.

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted," she said.

"I was just thinking it'd be a good, long run. I didn't expect to do that well at all."

A brand new course will always bring surprises and Dumfries product was slightly thrown off by a five-kilometre stretch in the track.

"There was about three miles in each direction of gravel with corrugations in, and that made it quite slippery on the way down and hard to get up because your feet would slip backwards a bit.

"It made things interesting."

You'd think after a 42-km run and two hours sleep that Joasia would be heading straight for the pillow but when asked what her afternoon schedule would be like, she answered quickly.

"I like the wine in Orange," she said.

Zakrzewski (2.49.14) beat out Michelle Gailey (3.05.25) and Bonnie Davies (3.21.16).

Nepean's Alex Matthews hasn't visited Orange since he took out the marathon at the Bloomfield Hospital Course in 2014 and on Sunday, after a six-year hiatus, the rangy runner made it two wins from two appearances.

He was on his haunches straight after his swift two hours 29 minutes 23 seconds run, but couldn't hide his joy.

"My body feels OK," Mathews said.

"You don't feel good for the whole run and you work through the challenging bits and when you feel good you go hard."

The expectations for the new course were high and Matthews was pleased with how it felt under foot.

"It's a good mix. There's a bit of off-road which is always a bit different but most of us do some trail running," he said. "It's a good course that's traffic-free and nothing too steep."

Matthews (2.29.23) finished ahead of runner-up Lachlan Oakes (2.33.13) and third-placed Robert Wooley (2.35.13).