Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his ninth Boston Marathon wheelchair title on Monday, riding a tailwind to finish in an unofficial time of 1 hour, 16 minutes, 6 seconds. He missed breaking his own course record by 33 seconds.
Two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of Champaign, Illinois, was second behind Hug for the fourth straight time.
In the women's wheelchair race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper won for the second time, finishing in an unofficial 1:30:51 to beat runner-up Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland by more than two minutes.
The fastest field in event history and ideal weather had runners expecting fast times in the 130th edition of the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon.
The athletes arrived in Hopkinton with frost on the ground and temperatures in the 30s. It had warmed to 45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) by the the time defending champions Sharon Lokedi and John Korir started the race, followed by more than 30,000 others.
It was the coldest starting temperature since 2018, when it was 38 degrees and raining. Last year, the thermostat was at 58 when runners set off.
Military marchers and 50 wheelchair athletes were first over the starting line, with the men's and women's fields following. Lokedi, who shattered the women's course record last year, is back, and Korir goes for another win in the men's race a year after posting the third-fastest time in Boston history.
On the 50th anniversary of the “Run for the Hoses,” when Jack Fultz won in temperatures approaching 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius), cool weather greeted the runners in Hopkinton and was expected to reach into the 40s during the day.
Fultz, who was serving as grand marshal, said as he waited to board his ride that the weather was the “polar opposite” from the day of his 1976 win.
“I am just trying to soak it all in, to remember it all," he said. “There are almost are no words to fully describe the kind of experience. You have a dream of a lifetime and all of a sudden it comes true.”
A tailwind was expected to help the competitors as they make their way to Boston's Back Bay.
Runners may notice some changes this year, with the race turning to a crowd scientist for help in spreading things out a little so they don’t face bottlenecks on the narrow streets of the eight cities and towns along the course. At the start is a new statue of and by marathon pioneer Bobbi Gibb — the first statue on the course honoring a woman.
Race Director Dave McGillivray sent the group of about 50 members of the Massachusetts National Guard members off at 6 a.m. McGillivray said it's the coldest start he could remember in his nearly four decades working at the race.
Staff Sgt. Mackenzie Smith and Spec. Benjamin De Boer stepped back and forth to try to stay warm before they set off on the course, but the cold didn't dampen their enthusiasm for participating in the Boston Marathon for the first time.
“It's an honor and a blessing to be standing at the Boston Marathon start,” Smith said. “The history that goes with the marathon resonates with me, growing up in Massachusetts.”
McGillivray said the cold added another layer of complexity because runners were arriving in Hopkinton with many layers of extra clothing that would be discarded at the start line and need to be collected. But as the sun comes out, he said it will be ideal for running.
