Jana-Rose Whatley had finished her shift as a hairstylist when she showed up at the Hyatt Regency Valencia to register for the Santa Clarita Marathon.

Surrounded by runners in sweats and casual clothes, Whatley stood decked in a skirt and heels with her hair and makeup done.

“I’m just a hairstylist,” she said. “But I love to run. It’s what gets me going every day.”

Little did the runners around her know that she would be the first woman to cross the finish line during the recent marathon, with a time of three hours, 31 minutes and 28 seconds.

It was her first marathon and she accomplished the win with little training.

Last year, Whatley signed up for the Santa Clarita Marathon’s 5K with a friend.

She took a wrong turn on the course then, and ended up joining the half-marathon runners — coming in 17th place, she said.

Her experience was enough to encourage her to take part in the marathon again.

About three months before, Whatley decided to sign up for her first marathon in her hometown. She remembered sitting down to a meal and announcing that she would set out to finish the 26-mile run.

“Once I said it out loud, there was no going back,” she said.

A month after, the Valencia High School graduate researched marathon training schedules and decided to go on three long runs, along with 18-mile and 20-mile runs along the Valencia paseos where she lives. She trained on her own without help from a gym or running group. For a while, she ran with a broken baby toe, limping until her foot healed.

“It’s all about your mindset,” she said.

Rain came over the Sunday morning of the marathon, but Whatley said it felt peaceful, considering she had run in 100-degree temperatures.

Whatley remembered the first 13 miles being easy. Once she hit mile 14, the struggle began, as she hadn’t run beyond 20 miles before and wasn’t familiar with the course.

Whatley didn’t realize she was among the front runners until mile 25, when marathon volunteers told her she was in second place, keeping a pace of about 8:10.

So she started sprinting, passing the first female runner to cross the finish line. Along the way, Whatley said she encouraged fellow runners to push past the rain.

“I would be encouraging them,” she said. “And it was almost like I was encouraging myself.”

Whatley thinks running is part of her genetics, given that her father is a seven-time marathon runner who doesn’t formally train. She spent time on her high school’s cross country and track teams during her senior year, but runs on her own more.

“I do it for fun,” she said. “It’s my daily meditation.”

Whatley doesn’t listen to an iPod when she runs because it’s her time to clear her head.

“I feel like a different person when I run,” she said. “I get into the zone. There’s no chaos. It’s me and the road.”

While she’ll continue her daily six-mile runs, she’s planning on running the Los Angeles Marathon and hopes to enter the Boston run, too.

Until then, she’s holding onto the euphoric feeling of winning her first marathon.

“I don’t think I could ever feel that good again,” she said. “Now I have that itch and I want to get better.”