I'm doing a cake for two women who are running the Boston marathon and have to model two runners crossing the finish line - will gumpaste work for this? I've never used it before and usually use fondant for figures but these need to be standing and fondant won't hold up. Any hints, suggestions, ideas etc. would be greatly appreciated - I need to have it ready next sunday - one week - is this long enough for gumpaste to dry hard?

Gumpaste will work for it, and it will dry within a week, probably much faster. You might want to put dried, uncooked spaghetti noodles into the figures to provide some support.

I use a mix of 50/50 gumpaste fondant or fondant mixed with Tylose & Fixodent powder. Gumpaste on it's own dries too quickly when modeling figures.