Nearly 30,000 starters competed in today’s Boston Marathon.
Lelisa Deesisa of Ethiopia and Caroline Rotich from Kenya won in the men’s and women’s divisions respectively.
Tatyana McFaden of the United States and Marcel Hug of Switzerland came in first in the wheelchair races. The crowd numbers were lower than usual on this rain soaked day.
Those who turned out at the sidelines witnessed what came down to a neck and neck race between Kenyan Caroline Rotich and Ethiopian Mare Dibaba.
Rotich crossed the finish line by a hair.
It was not the biggest marathon in the races history, but the unofficial number of runners on this dreary day – more than 27,000 — was good news to race organizers who had feared that the bombings of two years ago would keep runners away.
Thirty-one thousand ran last year. Among them veteran marathoner Alex Looi of Ithaca NY. He said the 2013 explosions were heavy on his mind.
Said Looi, "That bombing was like as though someone destroyed a holy shrine of mine."
Looi said he plans to be right back here next year.
