Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia scorched the first half of the Boston Marathon course on Monday, setting a record pace and establishing a lead of more than half a mile. The 34-year-old Ethiopian slowed down when the temperature warmed up
After running alone for most of the morning, Lemma held on down Boylston Street to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 17 seconds, the tenth fastest time in the race’s history. After reaching the finish line, Lemma dropped to the pavement and rolled onto his back, smiling.
“Until halfway through I was running very hard and very good. But after that it was getting harder and harder,” said Lemma, who failed to finish twice and came in 30th in three previous Boston attempts. “Several times I’ve dropped out of the race before. But today I won, so I’ve redeemed myself.”
In the women’s category, Kenya’s Hellen Obiri retained her title, outshining Sharon Lokedi on Boylston Street to finish in 2:27:37 and win by eight seconds. Two-time Boston champion Edna Kiplagat completed the Kenyan sweep by finishing 36 seconds later.
Obiri also won New York last fall and is one of the favorites for the Paris Olympics. She is the sixth woman to win back-to-back in Boston, and the first since Catherine “the Great” Ndereba, who won four in six years between 2000 and 2005.
“Defending the title was not easy. Since Boston started, it’s only six women. So I said, ‘Can I be one of them? If you want to be one of them, you have to work extra hard,’” she said. “And I’m so happy because I’m now one of them. I’m now in the history books in Boston.”
Lemma, the 2021 London winner, arrived in Boston with the fastest time in the field — just the fourth person ever to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year. And he showed it on the course Monday, separating himself from the pack in Ashland and opening a lead of more than half a mile.
Lemma finished the first half in 1:00:19, 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai’s course record pace in 2011 when his 2:03:02 was the fastest marathon ever. Fellow Ethiopian Mohamed Esa narrowed the distance in the final several miles to finish second by 41 seconds, with two-time defending winner Evans Chebet in third.
Winners take home $150,000 each from record-breaking prize pool
Each winner received a golden olive wreath and $150,000 from the total prize pool, which surpassed $1 million for the first time.
Emma Bates of Boulder, Colorado, finished 12th, marking her second consecutive year as the top American. She was once again leading the race at the 30-kilometer mark, slapping hands as she sprinted past Wellesley College students cheering her name before weakening on the way out of Heartbreak Hill.
“I thought last year was crazy loud, but this year surpassed that completely,” Bates said. “It was such a nice day for the spectators. Not so nice for the runners; it was pretty hot.”
Marcel Hug claims his eighth Boston title
CJ Albertson of Fresno, California, was the top American guy, finishing seventh for his second top-10 result.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland recovered from slamming into a barrier after taking a corner too quickly in the men’s wheelchair race. It was his eighth Boston title and 14th consecutive major marathon victory.
Hug had a four-minute lead around 18 miles in when he hit the historic firehouse turn in Newton, where the course heads onto Commonwealth Avenue on its way to Heartbreak Hill. He spilled into the fence, flipping sideways onto his left wheel, but quickly restored himself.
“It was my fault,” Hug said. “I had too much weight, too much pressure from above to my steering, so I couldn’t steer.”
Hug finished in 1:15:33, winning by 5:04 and smashing his course record by 1:33. Eden Rainbow-Cooper, 22, of Britain, won the women’s wheelchair race in 1:35:11 for her first major marathon triumph, making her the third-youngest woman to win the Boston wheelchair race.
Hopkinton, an otherwise peaceful New England town, marked its 100th anniversary as the starting line for the world’s oldest and most renowned marathon, sending off 17 former winners and nearly 30,000 additional runners. Officials marked the anniversary of the 2013 bombing, which killed three people and injured hundreds more, at the finish line on Boylston Street, 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers).
Boston Marathon unites community with celebration and remembrance
The participants were greeted by sunny sky and light winds, with temperatures in the 40s as they arrived in Hopkinton, climbing to 69 as the last few runners crossed the finish line in the afternoon. As the race passed through Natick, the fourth of eight cities and towns along the course, athletes poured water on themselves to cool off.
“We couldn’t ask for a better day,” former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, the grand marshal, said before climbing into an electric car that would carry him along the course. “The city of Boston always comes out to support, no matter the event. The weather is perfection, and the energy is popping.”
The festivities began around 6 a.m. when race director Dave McGillivray dispatched approximately 30 Massachusetts National Guard members. Lt. Col. Paula Reichert Karsten, one of the marchers, expressed her desire to be a part of a “quintessential Massachusetts event.”
The start line was painted to read “100 years in Hopkinton,” commemorating the 1924 move from Ashland to Hopkinton to conform to the official Olympic Marathon distance. The announcer welcomed the gathering crowds to the “sleepy little town of Hopkinton, 364 days of the year.”
“In Hopkinton, it’s probably the coolest thing about the town,” said Maggie Agosto, a 16-year-old resident who went to the start line with a friend to watch the race.
The annual race on Patriots’ Day, the state holiday that commemorates the start of the Revolutionary War, also fell on One Boston Day, when the city remembers the victims of the 2013 finish line bombings. Before the race, bagpipes accompanied Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and members of the victims’ families as they laid a pair of wreaths at the sites of the explosions.