The wind blew into the runners’ faces and the rain poured at times. But it wasn’t terribly cold and the rain stopped, for the most part, about halfway through the 111th Boston Marathon on Monday.
“I was grateful this morning waking up and having the conditions what they were,” top U.S. runner Deena Kastor said.
“Throughout the night, the conditions were horrendous. To unload the bus to a light drizzle and light winds was just great.”
That was about all that was great for Kastor, who had hoped to win her Boston debut. Instead, she had to make a restroom stop halfway through the 26.2-mile race and ran fifth.
The day, instead, belonged to defending Chicago Marathon champion Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya, who won Boston for the third time.
His time of 2 hours 14 minutes 13 seconds was almost seven minutes slower than his course record set last year and the slowest winning time since Canada’s Jerome Drayton in 1977.
The day also belonged to Russian Lidiya Grigoryeva, who surged at the 25th mile and never stopped until she hit the finish line first in 2:29:18 — the slowest women’s winning time since 1984.
The 25-m.p.h. headwind arrived as forecast, but the temperature of 52 at the start was more than 15 degrees warmer than predicted.
Seven of the top 10 male finishers were Kenyan. Latvia’s Jelena Prokupcuka, who won in New York last fall, was the women’s runner-up once again. Defending women’s champion Rita Jeptoo of Kenya was fourth.
“The weather was not good and that’s why the race was very tough,” said Cheruiyot, who also won in 2003. “Maybe next year, I will try to win, but you know Boston is not so easy.”
Cheruiyot, 28, became the first runner to win three Boston Marathons since Cosmas Ndeti from 1993-95.
Kastor, 34, the American marathon record-holder and the No. 1-ranked female marathoner in the world last year, took some consolation in winning the U.S. title, but she was clearly disappointed with her 2:35:09 finish.
“I just had a really bad day out there,” Kastor said.
Grigoryeva, 33, an Olympic 10,000-meter runner, had never run Boston.
“I thought the course was going to be more difficult,” she said. “At the 35-kilometer mark, I understood I have the power to win the race.”
Cheruiyot hung back with a large pack including James Kwambai and Stephen Kiogara — trailing two less renowned Kenyans — before taking the lead for good at mile 25. Kwambai finished second, Kiogara third. Peter Gilmore of San Mateo, Calif., was the top American, finishing eighth (2:16:41).
“I’ve never had a race where I’ve felt as in control of my breathing, but my legs were in such pain and couldn’t function,” Gilmore said. “Especially on Heartbreak Hill.”
