Runners from around the world competed in the 111th annual Boston Marathon yesterday, with Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot clocking in at 2:14:13 to win the 26.2-mile race for the second time.
After they made their way to the finish line in Copley Square, the Daily caught up with some Jumbo marathoners who were wrapped in blankets due to the windy weather.
University President Lawrence Bacow, who finished in 5:03:22, said in an e-mail to the Daily that it was his impression that Tufts runners handled the difficult weather conditions well.
"It was quite windy with the wind right on our nose and we had to contend with rain for the first half of the race. That said, conditions were a lot better than [the] forecast," he said.
Bacow, who was running his third consecutive marathon, said that all Tufts competitors that he saw finished the race.
Junior Mara Dodson was still bright-eyed and felt "pretty good" after clocking 4:43:25 in the race. Rounding the last corner and seeing the finish line was the "best feeling of all," she said.
Tufts parent Rob Bayless said that he had never finished a marathon before, but his son, sophomore Robert Bayless, ran the last six miles with him this year to help him with the home stretch. "He was very instrumental in pulling me through," the elder Bayless said. "It went very well - I feel extremely tired and satisfied to have done it."
Senior Katy Ansell was running her second marathon and stopped to chat briefly on the way to the Arlington T stop, which is located close to the finish line. "The weather did improve a lot. It was a lot better than I thought." She finished in 4:47:21. "My knee was killing me, but it was worth it," she said.
Ben Mardell, also on his way to the Arlington T stop, is one of three kindergarten teachers at Tufts' Eliot-Pearson Children's School. The marathon training was a great experience, he said, but "thank God it's over."
Krysta Chauncey, a psychology grad student, turned out to volunteer at the event. She said she'd never run the Boston race, but had completed a marathon in Prague. "Once you've done it, you realize what a grueling journey of the soul it is," she said, and she wanted to help out others who were headed down that path.
Steve Penrose, who graduated from the Fletcher school in 1967, is a Dallas, Texas resident caught off-guard by the weather. "It's bloody hell," he said, as the wind almost blew off his heat blanket. The end stretch was deadly, he said, and he finished in 5:17:05. "I could barely move," he said.
Two-time marathoner Lisa Freeman, who was resting inside the Copley Marriott, is a Jumbo three times over: she finished her term as an undergrad in 1986, graduated from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 1991, and the Friedman School of Nutrition in 1996. She now teaches at the Cummings School.
"The first [marathon] was raising money for nutrition research, so it seemed like I should be putting my money where my mouth is," she said.
Fellow marathoners and seniors Ronak Parikh and Will Chester waited for the Tufts bus back to campus with other Jumbos outside of the Copley Marriott.
Asked about the race itself, they said leg cramps were the toughest part, though they tried to preventively hydrate themselves ahead of time.
They said that Heartbreak Hill, the final, notorious hill in the last three-quarters of the race, wouldn't have been so bad if it were not for the cramping. "Because the cramping started before the hill, it was heartbreaking," Chester said.
Parikh said he found a second wind in the final stretch of the race. "I just got this huge adrenaline rush. I didn't feel any pain," he said.
Chester didn't have the same reaction, and was counting down the seconds until it was over. "I figured, it can't be more than a minute left," he said.
Asked if they'd take on another marathon, the answer was a resounding "no." "Maybe if you asked me in like, a month," Parikh said.
"I feel like you only have a certain number of marathons in you," Chester said. "I just filled my quota."
-Rob Silverblatt contributed reporting to this article.
