Monday, one of the hottest days of the year on the East Coast, was the annual running of the Boston Marathon. The winner for the men was Wesley Korir and the winner for the women was Sharon Cherop. Both of the runners hail from Kenya and they both finished with the slowest winning times since the race held in 1985. In 22 years, Korir becomes the 19th Kenyan male to win the Boston Marathon as the temperatures climbed into the 80s on Monday. In the last five years, Cherop was the third Kenyan woman to win the Boston Marathon.
In the history of the race, Geoffrey Mutai, from Kenya, finished with the fastest time. He won in two hours, three minutes and two seconds. During this year’s race, Mutai had to drop out of the race after 18 miles because of cramps. Korir did not set any race records this year as he finished in 2:12:40 but he was able to outrun fellow countrymen Levy Matebo, who finished in 2:13:06 and Bernard Kipyego, who finished in 2:13:13.
Cherop won with an unofficial time of 2:31:50 by outsprinting fellow countrywoman Jemima Jelagat Sumgong. This was the fifth straight year that the race for the women ended in a sprint to the finish line. In third place was Kenyan Georgina Rono at 2:33:09. Joshua Cassidy did not let the heat hinder his efforts in the wheelchair race. He set the world record by finishing with a time of 1:18:25. Cassidy hails from Toronto. The race featured close to 22,500 runners with close to 4,300 of those runners deferring their entries from this year’s race to next year’s because of the surprisingly dangerous heat temperatures today.