This year’s Boston Marathon had very frigid temperatures and weather conditions. It is recorded as the coldest start in thirty years with a temperature of 38 degrees F, in rain and 35 mile per hour winds. The marathon also marks it’s fifth year since the bombing with 29,960 runners.
It seems this year’s Boston Marathon is especially difficult to qualify for and run in. The qualifying times they have set for the lottery aren’t enough to solidify a position in the race. It’s been difficult for the past five years; this year’s qualifying time needed to be three and a half minutes faster than the qualifying time they have set. They want runners above and beyond, and they got it. Nineteen competitors in the marathon were over eighty years old, and ninety-four different countries were running along side them. Five of the runners were also registered as transgender. Although the weather conditions weren’t great, this year makes a mark in history for the Boston Marathon.
Desiree Linden was the winner for the women this year with a time of 2:39:54. She is the first female American to win the Boston Marathon since 1985. This is her first marathon victory of her career. Linden was close to a victory like this in the 2011 Boston Marathon, but was second by just two seconds. This year, however, she was more than four minutes ahead of second place. Seven American women followed her to finish in the top ten. The seventh American finished with a time of 2:46:47, an impressive and empowering moment for women in the nation. Shalane Flanagan was one of the women in this group and finished only sixteen seconds ahead of eighth place.
Sarah Sellers, second place American for the women, ran a time of 2:44:04 and managed to get ahead of Krista Duchene of Canada with 16 seconds to spare. Rachel Hyland of America was nine seconds behind Duchene and was followed by another American, Jessica Chichester, who ran 2:45:23. The last of the Americans in the top ten, Nicole Dimercurio, Shalane Flanagan, and Kimi Reed, followed pursuit to finish before Kiplagat Edna of Kenya and Hiroko Yoshitomi of Japan.
This has been an exciting day in Boston Marathon history for the women of America.
