121st Boston Marathon is Meb’s last, Rupp’s first
BOSTON — Meb Keflezighi’s last Boston Marathon. Galen Rupp’s first. Two defending champions on the women’s side (sort of), and Lemi Berhanu Hayle returns to go for his second straight men’s title.
Also: puppies!
The 121st edition of the Boston Marathon left Hopkinton on Monday morning for the 26.2-mile trek to Copley Square, with more than 30,000 runners expected to line up under partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s — a little warmer than the competitors would like. But a tailwind gusting up to 30 mph could mean fast times, at least among the elite runners who would finish before the hottest part of the day.
The race has largely returned to normal four years after two bombs at the finish line in 2013 killed three people and wounded hundreds more. A new documentary that premiered in Boston on Saturday night, narrated by Matt Damon, tells that story along with many others from the history of the world’s longest running long run.