Kenya and Alaska both make Boston Marathon great
- Klas Stolpe
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
Korir, Lokedi repeat; Howard reps Anchorage; Lucas, Aylward, Hinderberger and Lende compete from Southeast
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The oldest organized marathon in the world celebrated its 130th running along the streets of Boston on Monday, and runners from Kenya and Alaska once again were among the roughly 30,000 entrants.
“It is an awesome course and the weather was perfect,” Petersburg’s Uriah Lucas, 22, said of his first Boston Marathon. “I found the course a lot more manageable than I was expecting because I have heard a lot of stories about people having tough races in Boston, although the weather probably played into the course seeming more friendly.”
Temperatures in the upper 30s and low 40s at the starting line rose to the upper 40s and low 50s at the finish. A five- to 15-mph tailwind benefited runners with partly cloudy skies.
Anchorage’s Riley Howard, 28, was the fastest Alaskan in the race with a time of two hours 15 minutes and 37 seconds, placing 49th overall among the men’s field. His time was the fastest by an Alaskan in the Boston Marathon and put him under the 2:16:00 qualifying mark for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Only two Alaskans have run a marathon faster: David Morris ran 2:09:32 in October 1999, and Aaron Fletcher ran 2:14:45 in October 2017.
In a social media post Howard, a Service High School graduate and medical student, said “These are the days that remind me why I love to run…an Olympic Trials Qualifier at Boston?!? Hands down, my best race ever.”
Petersburg’s Lucas had the fastest time for Southeast Alaska runners with 2:34:12 (563rd overall). Juneau participants William Aylward, 26, went 2:37:56 (918th) and Joanna Hinderberger, 35, ran in 3:59:13 (21,436th). Haines’ Chip Lende, 69, hit 3:59:14 (21,437th).
“My hope was really to just put together a good race and race smarter than I had in my past marathons,” Lucas said. “It really went better than planned. I negative split by about a minute, and the second half of the race is harder than the first. So that was really pleasantly surprising. Considering my last splits were the fastest, I probably left a little time on the table, but I really don’t care. It is still over a six-minute PR and I am proud of how controlled it felt…Running with so many good runners was really a great experience and in a way quite liberating. In most of my past races, I have always been a top runner in the field, so I always have this mentality that I am in it to win it and to put myself in positions to beat other people, as well as running a good time. This time, obviously, I am not winning anything so it was really quite fun to just run my own race, not have the stress of having a race to lose, but at the same time be able to still run fast with other people.”
Juneau’s Aylward won the Juneau Marathon last summer to qualify for Boston in a time of 2:37:20.
After the Juneau Marathon, Aylward told the Juneau Independent, “It has been a lifelong goal to run a marathon. I grew up just north of Boston and I really wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and now I have. I couldn’t really be any more ecstatic.”
Kenya’s John Korir, 29, repeated as the elite men’s champion and set a course record of two hours one minute and 52 seconds. Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu held off Kenya’s Benson Kipruto 2:02:47 to 2:02:50 for second and third, respectively. The old record of 2:03:02 was set in 2011 by Geoffrey Mutai. Colorado’s Zouhair Talbi placed fifth with a new American men’s record time of 2:03:45.
This was Korir’s fourth Boston Marathon.
“I knew I would defend my title,” Korir told the Boston Athletic Association, “but I didn’t know I would run that fast…For many years, my mind was set on the course record and I thank God that I have achieved it now.”
Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi, 32, repeated as the elite women’s champion in 2:18:51, the second-fastest winning time in race history after her own mark of 2:17:22 set last year. Countrywomen Loice Chemnung and Mary Ngugi-Cooper placed second and third, respectively, in 2:19:35 and 2:20:07. Arizona’s Jessica McClain placed fifth in the field with a new American course record of 2:20:49.
Lokedi had to be patient in the early miles when in a pack of 16. She told the BAA, “After I broke away, I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I am just going to follow the car.’”
Korir and Lokedi each won $150,000 and a gilded olive wreath sent from the plains of Marathon, Greece. Korir also received another $50,000 for setting the course record. Kelvin Kiptum holds the marathon world record of 2:00:35 set on the flat course of the Chicago Marathon in 2023. Nearly $1.5 million in prize money is awarded for the top 10 finishers in the men’s and women’s open and wheelchair divisions.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, 40, repeated as the men’s wheelchair champion in 1:16:06, securing his ninth Boston title, and Great Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper, 24, repeated to win her second women’s wheelchair title with 1:30:51. Hug set the Boston wheelchair record in 2024 and is one win away from tying South African wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk for Boston Marathon wins.
Hug summed up the Boston Marathon experience by saying, “Every single win here in Boston is really something special, very unique, and means a lot to me…now to have won nine times is even more incredible.”
The last person to cross the finish line was Ruby Thomas, 64, from Dorchester, the largest neighborhood in Boston. She was running for a daughter who had passed two years ago.
She was quoted by CBS News as saying, “I just kept thinking about my daughter…so I had to keep going. I had to keep going for Jalana. I kept hearing something say, ‘Keep going. Don’t stop.’ There is a joy in running, something clicks in me and snaps.”
BOSTON MARATHON ALASKA FINISHERS
MEN’s placing overall
49 - Riley Howard, Anchorage, 2:15:37
563 - Uriah Lucas, Petersburg 2:34:12
918 - William Aylward, Juneau, 2:37:56
1,452 - Cody Priest, Anchorage, 2:41:56
2,124 - James Miller, Anchorage, 2:46:18
3,583 - Robert Pires, JBER, 2:53:46
4,656 - Marko Cheseto, 2:56:36
5,160 - Joseph Davis, Eagle River, 2:58:06
9,486 - Tyler Rhodes, Nome, 3:12:53
10,541 - Mark Curtis, Wasilla, 3:15:58
17,734 - John McCall, Chugiak, 3:41:07
19,547 - Jared Dimond, Fairbanks, 3:49:01
21,437 - Chip Lende, Haines, 3:59:14
21,739 - Gregory Finstad, Fairbanks, 4:01:09
24,255 - Michael Bergholtz, Kenai, 4:24:51
26,243 - Patrick Guilfoyle, Seward, 4:46:38
WOMEN’S placing by gender
399 - 4,805 overall - Breanna Day, Eagle River, 2:57:04
669 - Ellie Weir, Fairbanks, 3:00:57
772 - Abby Stemper, Anchorage, 3:02:28
1,256 - Michelle Baxter, 3:07:20
1,416 - Mariah Graham, Anchorage, 3:08:35
2,060 - Adrianna Dong, Anchorage, 3:13:20
2,177 - Evelyn Porras, Anchorage, 3:14:02
2,827 - Rya Berrigan, Palmer, 3:18:05
2,927 - Sarah Aarons, Anchorage, 3:18:37
3,311 - Morgan Lash, Anchorage, 3:20:45
3,845 - Lindy Henrick, Wasilla, 3:23:56
4,674 - Amanda Day, Eagle River, 3:28:34
7,897 - Kari Gondeck, Fairbanks, 3:53:53
8,471 - 21,436 overall - Joanna Hinderberger, Juneau, 3:59:13
8,597 - Eva Hall, Anchorage, 4:00:43
9,281 - Carma Reed, Anchorage, 4:11:40
10,861 - Katie Russell, Eagle River, 4:43:10
