For the past few years, there hasn’t really been such a thing as a normal Boston Marathon.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed organizers to hold a virtual marathon. In 2021, the race was back, but it was moved to the fall for the first time ever as COVID-19 mitigation efforts prevented a regularly scheduled race. While 2022 marked a return to a Patriots’ Day running of the marathon, the cloud of the pandemic continued to hang over the race. Last year should have been the grand return to the natural order of race day, but somber observances of the 10-year anniversary of the marathon bombing made for a bittersweet moment for many athletes and spectators.
This year though, for the first-time in a while, Marathon Monday simply felt like just another Marathon Monday. And that allowed the athletes to take their rightful place in center stage.
In the men’s open field, Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma dominated the competition, finishing comfortably in first place with a time of 2:06:17, the tenth-fastest time in race history. Speaking through a translator afterward, he was honest about his previous struggles with the race. He has failed to finish Boston twice before and he came in 30th in 2019.
“But I said I'm going to redeem myself,” he said. “And I came today, and I started really fast, and I was able to win.”
On the women’s side, Kenya’s Hellen Obiri earned another a first-place run, joining the small number of women who have ever won in consecutive years.
“I’m so happy because I’m now one of them,” she said.
Obiri is the first woman to go back-to-back since Catherine Ndereba did so in 2005.
In the men’s wheelchair division, Marcel Hug of Switzerland broke his own course record he set just last year, finishing with a time of 1:15:33. And for the first time ever, a British woman won the women’s wheelchair division when Eden Rainbow-Cooper finished in 1:35:11.
“Yeah, my first marathon was just over two years ago. So, to have such a large progression in such a short amount of time, it’s beyond my wildest dreams,” she said.
The weather may have been a little warm for the athletes, but otherwise it was about as plain a Marathon Monday as anyone could ask for. And after these last few years of restriction and reflection, that’s more than welcome.
