BOSTON (AP) — Sisay Lemma scorched the first half of the Boston Marathon course on Monday, setting a record pace to build a lead of more than half of a mile.
Then the weather heated up, and the 34-year-old Ethiopian slowed down.
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BOSTON (AP) — Sisay Lemma scorched the first half of the Boston Marathon course on Monday, setting a record pace to build a lead of more than half of a mile.
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, celebrates after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, left, winner of the men's division of the Boston Marathon, and Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, right, winner of the women's division of the race, hold the trophy on the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski hoists the winner's trophy at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski hoists the winner's trophy at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland holds the trophy after winning the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, raises her arms after winning the women's division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, raises her arms as she wins the women's division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, breaks the tape to win the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, celebrates while lying down after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A wave of runners start the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Zachary Helner, of Michigan, gives a high-five to a volunteer as he breaks from the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
A member of the State Police looks on as a wave crosses the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Boston Marathon men's wheelchair division winner Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, poses with the trophy after the race, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski spikes a football on the finish line at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, left, winner of the Boston Marathon men's wheelchair division, left, and Eden Rainbow Cooper, of Britain, right, winner of the women's wheelchair division, display the trophy on the finish line Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, reacts after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, breaks the tape to win the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, celebrates as he wins the men's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Grand Marshal and former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski poses at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Women's wheelchair athletes break from the line at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Elite male runners break from the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Elite male runners break from the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Men's wheelchair athletes break from the line at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray, centre, sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray, right, sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Workers affix banners at the starting line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Members of the United States military cross the starting line as they participate in the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
After running alone for most of the morning, Lemma held on down Boylston Street to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds — the 10th fastest time in the race's 128-year history. Lemma dropped to the pavement and rolled onto his back, smiling, after crossing the finish line.
“Until halfway through I was running very hard and very good. But after that it was getting harder and harder,” said Lemma, who failed to finish twice and came in 30th in three previous Boston attempts. “Several times I’ve dropped out of the race before. But today I won, so I’ve redeemed myself.”
Hellen Obiri defended her title, outkicking Sharon Lokedi on Boylston Street to finish in 2:27:37 and win by eight seconds; two-time Boston champion Edna Kiplagat completed the Kenyan sweep, finishing another 36 seconds back.
Obiri also won New York last fall and is among the favorites for the Paris Olympics. She is the sixth woman to win back-to-back in Boston and the first since Catherine “the Great” Ndereba won four in six years from 2000 to '05.
“Defending the title was not easy. Since Boston started, it’s only six women. So I said, ‘Can I be one of them? If you want to be one of them, you have to work extra hard,'” she said. “And I’m so happy because I’m now one of them. I’m now in the history books in Boston."
Lemma, the 2021 London champion, arrived in Boston with the fastest time in the field — just the fourth person ever to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year. And he showed it on the course Monday, separating himself from the pack in Ashland and opening a lead of more than half of a mile.
Lemma ran the first half in 1:00:19 — 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's course record pace in 2011, when his 2:03:02 was the fastest marathon in history. Fellow Ethiopian Mohamed Esa closed the gap through the last few miles, finishing second by 41 seconds; two-time defending champion Evans Chebet was third.
Each winner collected a gilded olive wreath and $150,000 from a total prize purse that topped $1 million for the first time.
On a day when sunshine and temperatures rising into the mid-60s left the runners reaching for water — to drink, and to dump over their heads — Obiri ran with an unusually large lead pack of 15 through Brookline before breaking away in the final few miles.
Emma Bates of Boulder, Colorado, finished 12th — her second straight year as the top American. Again, she found herself leading the race through the 30-kilometer mark, slapping hands as she ran past the Wellesley College students chanting her name before fading on the way out of Heartbreak Hill.
“I thought last year was crazy loud, but this year surpassed that completely,” Bates said. “It was such a nice day for the spectators. Not so nice for the runners; it was pretty hot.”
CJ Albertson of Fresno, California, was the top American man in seventh, his second top-10 finish.
Switzerland's Marcel Hug righted himself after crashing into a barrier when he took a turn too fast and still coasted to a course record in the men's wheelchair race. It was his seventh Boston win and his 14th straight major marathon victory.
Hug already had a four-minute lead about 18 miles in when he reached the landmark firehouse turn in Newton, where the course heads onto Commonwealth Avenue on its way to Heartbreak Hill. He spilled into the fence, flipping sideways onto his left wheel, but quickly restored himself.
“It was my fault,” Hug said. “I had too much weight, too much pressure from above to my steering, so I couldn’t steer.”
Hug finished in 1:15:33, winning by 5:04 and breaking his previous course record by 1:33. Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper, 22, won the women's wheelchair race in 1:35:11 for her first major marathon victory; she is the third-youngest woman to win the Boston wheelchair race.
The otherwise sleepy New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversary as the starting line for the world's oldest and most prestigious marathon, sending off a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners on its way. Near the finish on Boylston Street 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) away, officials observed the anniversary of the 2013 bombing that killed three and wounded hundreds more.
Sunny skies and minimal wind greeted the runners, with temperatures in the 40s as they gathered in Hopkinton rising to 69 as the stragglers crossed the finish line in the afternoon. As the field went through Natick, the fourth of eight cities and towns on the route, athletes splashed water on themselves to cool off.
“We couldn’t ask for a better day," former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, the grand marshal, said before climbing into an electric car that would carry him along the course. "The city of Boston always comes out to support, no matter the event. The weather is perfection, the energy is popping.”
The festivities began around 6 a.m., when race director Dave McGillivray sent about 30 Massachusetts National Guard members off. Lt. Col. Paula Reichert Karsten, one of the marchers, said she wanted to be part of a “quintessential Massachusetts event.”
The start line was painted to say “100 years in Hopkinton,” commemorating the 1924 move from Ashland to Hopkinton to conform to the official Olympic Marathon distance. The announcer welcomed the gathering crowds to the “sleepy little town of Hopkinton, 364 days of the year.”
“In Hopkinton, it’s probably the coolest thing about the town," said Maggie Agosto, a 16-year-old resident who went to the start line with a friend to watch the race.
The annual race on Patriots' Day, the state holiday that commemorates the start of the Revolutionary War, also fell on One Boston Day, when the city remembers the victims of the 2013 finish line bombings. Before the race, bagpipes accompanied Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and members of the victims' families as they laid a pair of wreaths at the sites of the explosions.
This story corrects that Hug won his seventh Boston victory.
Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Hopkinton contributed to this report.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the women's division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, celebrates after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, left, winner of the men's division of the Boston Marathon, and Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, right, winner of the women's division of the race, hold the trophy on the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski hoists the winner's trophy at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski hoists the winner's trophy at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland holds the trophy after winning the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, raises her arms after winning the women's division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Hellen Obiri, of Kenya, raises her arms as she wins the women's division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, breaks the tape to win the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, celebrates while lying down after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A wave of runners start the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Zachary Helner, of Michigan, gives a high-five to a volunteer as he breaks from the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
A member of the State Police looks on as a wave crosses the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Boston Marathon men's wheelchair division winner Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, poses with the trophy after the race, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski spikes a football on the finish line at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. Gronkowski is grand marshal of the race. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, left, winner of the Boston Marathon men's wheelchair division, left, and Eden Rainbow Cooper, of Britain, right, winner of the women's wheelchair division, display the trophy on the finish line Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, reacts after winning the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Sisay Lemma, of Ethiopia, breaks the tape to win the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland breaks the tape to win the men's wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Marcel Hug, of Switzerland, celebrates as he wins the men's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Grand Marshal and former New England Patriots NFL football player Rob Gronkowski poses at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Women's wheelchair athletes break from the line at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Elite male runners break from the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Elite male runners break from the start line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Men's wheelchair athletes break from the line at the start of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray, centre, sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray, right, sends a group of Massachusetts National Guard members across the start line in Hopkinton on Monday, April 15, 2024 to begin the marathon. The start line was painted in honor of the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century. It's the 128th edition of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)
Workers affix banners at the starting line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
Members of the United States military cross the starting line as they participate in the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
