16 April, 2024
The 128th Boston Marathon took place this past Monday (April 15th) on a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the 60's. View scenes in the video below courtesy of HCAM Volunteer, Denise Antaki.
New England Patriots super bowl champion tight end, Rob Gronkowski was the Grand Marshal of this years Marathon. This year was the 100th Boston Marathon start out of Hopkinton. The Boston Marathon was first ran in 1897 with just 15 people participating, (10 of which were able to finish the race). The Boston Marathon start-line moved to Hopkinton in 1924 when the official distance of a Marathon became 26.2 miles. This year close to 30,000 athletes from 129 different countries participated in the annual Patriots Day tradition.
In another successful year of the Boston Marathon, Marcel Hug of Switzerland a.k.a. the Silver Bullet took the Men's Wheelchair title. Marcel broke his own course record despite a slight crash towards the finish. Hug won the Boston Marathon for his 7th time and bested his 2023 record finishing with a time of 1 hour, 15 minutes and 33 seconds. "The Silver Bullet" finished just over 5 minutes in-front of 2nd place finisher, American, Daniel Romanchuk.
In the Women's wheel-chair race, a 22 year old from Portsmouth, England named, Eden Rainbow Cooper won her 1st Marathon with a time of 1 hour 35 minutes and 11 seconds. Cooper finished 90 seconds in front of 2nd place finisher Manuela Schar out of Switzerland.
In the Men's elite-runners race, Sisay Lemma of Ethopia took his first Boston Marathon win with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 17 seconds. Sisay Lemma finished 41 seconds over 2nd place finisher, Mohamed Esa. Evans Chebet from Kenya finished in 3rd place. 7th place finisher CJ Albertson was the only American in the top-10 finishers.
In the Women's elite-runner race it was a dramatic finish between the 1st and 2nd place finishers. Hellen Obiri out of Kenya took the win finishing just 8 seconds before fellow Kenyan and 2nd place finisher, Sharon Lokedi. Hellen Obiri took her 2nd straight Boston Marathon win in the Women's race at a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds.
Congratulations to the Boston Athletic Association, the 26.2 Foundation and Hopkinton Marathon Committee on another successful year of the Boston Marathon and also a big congratulations to all who participated in this year's race and the tremendous volunteers who made this year's terrific event happen!
