BOSTON (AP) — A rider dressed as Paul Revere eased his horse up to the Boston Marathon finish line and proclaimed, “The runners are coming.”
And down Boylston Street they came.
In record time. With a historic family first. And even “The Star-Spangled Banner” got some air time as the race and the region commemorated the 250th anniversary of the first shots fired in the American Revolution.
Sharon Lokedi of Kenya broke the Boston Marathon course record by more than 2 1/2 minutes on Monday, outkicking two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri a year after losing to her in one of the closest finishes in race history.
Fellow Kenyan John Korir recovered from a starting line fallto join his brother as a race champion — the first relatives to win the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon in a history that dates to 1897.
On a day that also marked the 50th anniversary of Bob Hall's pioneering wheelchair race, Marcel Hug of Switzerland claimed his eighth victory and Susannah Scaroni of the United States took the women's title.
“I always feel emotional when the national anthem is played," said Scaroni, who won in 2023 but couldn't defend her title last year because of an injury. “And to have ours played on this amazing, historic anniversary gives me goosebumps.”
Lokedi finished in 2 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds to claim the $150,000 first prize and another $50,000 bonus for breaking the course record of 2:19:59 set by Buzunesh Deba in 2014. A year after sprinting to an 8 second victory, Obiri was 19 seconds back in her attempt to become the first woman to win three straight since Fatuma Roba in 1999.
“Where she passed me last year, I passed her this year,” Lokedi said with a laugh. “I didn’t even believe. I kept looking back and thinking, ‘Where is she?’ I’m just so grateful to her for pushing me all the way through.”
Six months after winning on Chicago's flatter course, Korir finished in 2:04:45 — the second-fastest winning time in Boston history as the runners took advantage of perfect marathon weather to conquer the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) from Hopkinton to Boston’s Copley Square.
And he did it despite getting tripped up from behind near the start and falling. He got up to rejoin the lead pack at the rear.
“What came to my mind was should I stay down, or should I (get) up and go?” he said. “Something told me to (get) up and go, and that everything will be OK. ... And everything went away."
Korir's race bib fell off and he tucked it into his running tights, pulling it out as he sprinted to the finish line. Waiting to congratulate him: 2012 Boston winner Wesley Korir, his older brother.
Although the race has been won by a pair of unrelated John Kelleys and two different Robert Cheruiyots, the Korirs are the first brothers to have won.
“He explained to be tough and believe in yourself,” said John Korir, who finished fourth and ninth in his two previous Boston attempts. “So I believed in myself and I followed his advice.”
Conner Mantz of Provo, Utah, finished fourth after losing a three-way sprint to the finish with Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, who finished second, and Cybrian Kotut of Kenya, who was third.
Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia was third in the women's race. Jess McClain of Phoenix was the top American, in seventh place; 2018 winner Des Linden, who had announced she would retire from competitive running, won the masters division and was 17th overall.
When she crossed the finish line, the other American women bowed to her in tribute.
“I had those folks in front of me who paved the way, and I looked up to them. And they always made me feel like I belonged, made me feel like my dreams are valid, helped me along the way,” Linden said. “So I've always tried to do that for the folks in this sport as well."
A field of 30,000 left Hopkinton on Monday morning for Boston's Back Bay, where riders in Revolutionary War garb — accompanied by a fife and drum playing “Yankee Doodle” — rode down Boylston Street in a reenactment of Paul Revere's ride.
The ceremony came to a temporary halt when the horses was spooked by the finish line decal on the street and pulled up. The actor portraying the colonial silversmith and patriot had to hop off and walk the last few steps himself as the small early crowd laughed and clapped.
After reading a proclamation, Revere gently tugged the horse the rest of the way before riding off to more ceremonies commemorating the midnight ride on April 19, 1775, that warned the Sons of Liberty that the British were on the march.
Linden, the last American runner to win Boston, read the voice-over that introduced the reenactment.
“I wondered, ‘Are these professional horses?’ Because it seemed like a lot for them,” she said afterward. “It turns out, it was.”
Hug had no such trouble completing the course, zooming into Copley Square in 1:21:34 for his eighth Boston wheelchair title. He beat two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk by more than four minutes.
Scaroni finished in 1:35:20 on a day the Boston Athletic Association celebrated Hall’s push to add a wheelchair division in 1975.
“I am only here today because so many incredible individuals had integrity, tenacity — they knew they belonged as athletes and they allowed us to have what we have today,” she said. "And I'm so beyond grateful.
“I'm not brave like them,” Scaroni said. “I'm only here because of how awesome those people are.”
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Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Hopkinton, Mass., contributed to this story.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Jimmy Golen, The Associated Press
