Boston Marathon: Runners honor bombing victims at race's 127th running

Kenya's Evans Chebet won his second consecutive Boston Marathon on Monday – one day after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist bombing and subsequent manhunt that claimed the lives four victims and one of the two attackers.

Chebet crossed the finish line on a rainy day in Boston with a time of 2:05:54 for his the third major win of his career. World record-holder Eliud Kipchoge made his Boston Marathon debut and was leading for much of the race before being overtaken by Chebet on the famed Heartbreak Hill.

Chebet, 2021 winner Benson Kipruto and Gabriel Geay dropped Kipchoge from the lead pack around Mile 20 and then ran together for the last three miles. Geay won a footrace for second, 10 seconds behind and 2 seconds ahead of Kipruto. Kipchoge, a 12-time major marathon winner, was sixth, while Scott Fauble, the top American, finished seventh.

Hellen Obiri, another Kenyan, won the women's race in 2:21:38. She placed sixth at the New York Marathon last November. 

Reminders of the April 16, 2013 tragedy were visible throughout the 127th running of the event on Monday. Beyond the traditional signs and memorials, law enforcement officers were seen using a robotic dog to check the area for bombs. Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz served as the race's Grand Marshall nearly 10 years after his inspirational 'this is our city' speech at Fenway Park in the bombing's aftermath. The Red Sox would go on to win the World Series later that season. 

Kenya's Evans Chebet won his second consecutive Boston Marathon on Monday

Hellen Obiri of Kenya crosses the finish line and takes first place in the professional division

David Ortiz served as the race's Grand Marshall 10 years to the after his 'this is our city' speech

Kipchoge had been hoping to add a Boston Marathon victory to his unprecedented running resume. The 38-year-old has won two Olympic gold medals and four of the six major marathons; Boston is the only one he has competed in and failed to win. (He has never run New York.) He also broke 2 hours in an exhibition in a Vienna park. 

A familiar name returned to the top of the podium and another one got there for the first time in the wheelchair division on Monday.

Fighting a trace of a headwind and rain that dampened the roads, Kipchoge ran in the lead pack from the start in Hopkinton until the series of climbs collectively known as Heartbreak Hill. But to the surprise of the fans lined up along Boylston Street for the final sprit, he wasn't among the three leaders. 

Marcel Hug of Switzerland captured his sixth men's wheelchair Boston Marathon title, claiming the victory in a course record of 1 hour, 17 minutes, 6 seconds in the first race of the day. It bests his previous course mark of 1:18:04 set in 2017. American Daniel Romanchuk was second in 1:27.45, followed by Jetze Plat of the Netherlands in 1:28.35.

In the women's race, American Susannah Scaroni won her first Boston title, crossing the line in 1:41.45. Her victory followed runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2022. She was followed by Madison de Rozario of Australia in 1:46.55 and Wakako Tsuchida of Japan in 1:47.04.

Hug's win was the second-largest in the Boston wheelchair race's history. He received $25,000 for the victory and a $50,000 bonus for setting the new course mark.

The 37-year-old Hug surged to the front of the field on a foggy and drizzly morning, leading the majority of the 26.2-mile course a year after withdrawing before the race for medical reasons. Hug also broke the course record in Saturday's 5K race as well.

Scaroni built a 20-second lead early before having to stop briefly to adjust a loose right wheel about 10 miles in. She dealt with the issue and returned to the race.

Also running were 6-foot-9 former Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, who finished in 3:38:23, and celebrity chef Daniel Humm, with a time of 2:58:53.

Chara, who wore No. 33 for the Bruins, had bib No. 3333. Olympic tennis gold medalist Monica Rakitt, who was known as Monica Puig when she won the Rio Games, had bib No. 2016. Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie, who wore No. 22 at Boston College, and No. 2 for much of his NFL career, had bib No. 222.

No one was assigned bib No. 2013 in remembrance of the 2013 finish line bombings that killed three people and wounded hundreds more. The race included 264 members of the One Fund community — those injured by the attack, their friends and family and charities associated with them.

Former Boston Bruins player Zdeno Chara and Becca Pizzi hold hands as they cross the finish

Local law enforcement officers were seen using a robotic dog to check the area for bombs

Olivia Brackett and Charlottte Walmsley hold hands run as they run towards the finish line

The elite men's runners are pictured during the race's early stages on Monday outside Boston

Georgina Ortega Vera celebrates after crossing the finish during the 127th Boston Marathon

The elite women break from the starting line during the 127th Boston Marathon on Monday

Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division on Monday

Manuel Cabral kisses a flag of Portugal after finishing the 127th Boston Marathon

Hug and Susannah Scaroni, 31, hold the first place trophy together after winning the marathon

Evans Chebet of Kenya (L) embraces race official Jack Fleming after winning the men's division

Jeremy Frantz (11598) reacts as he joins other runners at the start of the 127th Boston Marathon

David Ortiz sports two of his World Series rings while talking with Hopkinton Police 

Unacquainted runners Felipe Costa, Guilherme Patavino, and Zachary Aspinall help each other

This year's race included members of the One Fund community — survivors of the 2013 attack, along with friends and family of the victims and those raising money for related causes. Some of the Guard members marching the course said they would be thinking about those who were killed, and their families. Staff Sgt. Brenda Santana, 30, of Saugus, Massachusetts, said she will likely cry at the finish. 

'I think it's going to be emotional, remembering the tragedy, the lives that were lost,' she said. 'I will keep them in my mind as I'm crossing the finish line.'

On Saturday, many marathon runners in their blue and yellow windbreakers and several former Boston Red Sox players came out to a ceremony near the finish line. Church bells rang and the Boston City Singers and Boston Pops performed 'Amazing Grace' and 'America the Beautiful.' Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who was making her first run for City Council when the bombing happened, joined the somber procession along with Gov. Maura Healey. At each memorial site — marked with three stone pillars — they stood with the families in silence.

The annual Patriots Day race was coming to a close on April 16, 2013, when two backpack bombs exploded near the finish line on Boylston Street. The explosives were timed to go off more than four hours into the race – when the bulk of the runners were expected to be near the finish.

Evans Chebet of Kenya (L) and Hellen Obiri of Kenya (R) pose with the trophy on the finish line

Thomas Shanley is helped by Chris Fischer at the finish line of the 127th Boston Marathon

Three people were killed and more than 281 were injured as a result of the bombing.

Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.

On Monday, several of Richard's childhood friends are planning to run the race in his memory.  

During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.

Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been in a gunfight with police and was run over by his brother as he fled. 

'I think we're all still living with those tragic days 10 years ago,' Bill Evans, the former Boston Police Commissioner, said recently.

Fans cheer on racers during the 127th Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday

A general view as a police officer patrols the finish line area at the 2023 Boston Marathon

A person cleans a logo near the finish line before the start of the 127th Boston Marathon

Workers clean the wet finish line during the 127th Boston Marathon in Boston on Monday

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death, but is now fighting a legal battle to spare his life

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a golden gloves boxer before turning his attention to domestic terror

Martin Richard, 8, was killed in the 2013 bombing as he watched the race with his parents

Former Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (center) is seen with Richard's friends at the Marathon

Former Red Sox players Jonny Gomes, David Ortiz, and Jacoby Ellsbury at a recent ceremony

Ortiz famously gave an inspiring -- albeit expiative-laden -- speech in the bombing aftermath 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death and much of the attention, in recent years, has been around his bid to avoid being executed.

A federal appeals court is considering Tsarnaev's latest bid to avoid execution. A three-judge panel of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments in January in the 29-year-old's case, but has yet to issue a ruling.

The appeals court initially threw out Tsarnaev's death sentence in 2020, saying the trial judge did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. But the U.S. Supreme Court revived it last year.

The 1st Circuit is now weighing whether other issues that weren't considered by the Supreme Court require the death sentence to be tossed a second time. Among other things, Tsarnaev says the trial judge wrongly denied his challenge of two jurors who defense attorneys say lied during jury selection questioning.

The bombing not only unified Boston — 'Boston Strong' became the city's rallying cry — but inspired many in the running community and prompted scores of those impacted by the terror attack to run the marathon. At the memorial sites Saturday several flower pots with the words 'Boston Strong' held what have become known as Marathon daffodils.

'It really galvanized and showed our sport's and our city's resiliency, our desire together to continue even better and to enhance the Boston Marathon,' Boston Athletic Association President and CEO Jack Fleming said. 'The bombing in 2013 resulted in a new appreciation or a different appreciation for what Boston, what the Boston Marathon, has always stood for, which is that expression of freedom that you receive and get while running.'

Police captured  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat

A police tactical unit drives through the streets as they search for 19-year-old suspect

A police officer stops a car while the search for the bombing suspects continued in 2013

The fastest and most-decorated elite field ever was assembled for the start of the race in Hopkinton on Monday. 

The group included world record holders, Olympic and Paralympic medalists, winners of major marathons from 27 countries and a dozen Boston Marathon champions, according to the Boston Athletic Association, which administers the prestigious race. 

About 30,000 athletes ran 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) to Copley Square in Boston. A light drizzle has made for wet roads at the start and runners could be facing a headwind. The temperature was in the low 50s.

This year the race included a new division for nonbinary athletes.

At 6am in Hopkinton, race director Dave McGillivray sent out a group of about 20 from the Massachusetts National Guard, which walks the course annually, announcing the start of the marathon. He thanked them for their service and wished them well on the course.

Race Director Dave McGillivray talks to a group from the Massachusetts National Guard

A person walks past a memorial for those killed in the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013