Boston Marathon is Back! (Ben Glover)
The Boston Marathon will be returning to Boston in April once again. Due to the pandemic, the Boston Marathon was canceled in 2020 in the Springtime and moved to September. After this, the Boston Marathon was held in the Fall for the past two years, 2020 (virtually) and 2021 (in person). The Boston Marathon has been a Springtime tradition for over a century, the Boston Athletics Association proudly announced that they’ll be returning to the Spring for the first time since 2019. Everyone was very excited to have the usual tradition back on schedule.
This year, the Boston Marathon took place on April 18th which was Patriots Day and the 126th running of the race. There was a total of 30,000 racers, with Evans Chebet of Kenya winning first place. Chebet is won the Boston Marathon for the first time in his life. On the women’s side, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya won first place as she also won a Gold Medal in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in the Women’s Marathon event and was the winner in 2021 New York Marathon. She became the first runner ever to win an Olympic gold medal and the New York & Boston Marathons.
In the Wheelchair competitions, American Daniel Romanchuk won the Men’s wheelchair race for the 2nd time in his career. On the women’s side, Swiss paralympic athlete Manuela Schär won the Wheelchair competition.
This got me thinking of some of the records held by people who ran this historic race. The pandemic took away over a century of tradition as it created a Spring race. Now, the history of the Boston Marathon is back in order, to represent the past, present, and future races.
Geoffrey Mutai holds the fastest time for men in the race, with 2:03:02 back in 2011. Buzunesh Deba holds the fastest time for women, with 2:19:59 in 2014. Bill Rodgers has the most victories at the Marathon, racking up 4 wins, all in the 70s. Rodgers currently lives in Boxborough, MA, and is the neighbor of the Staff Writer who is writing this piece.
