Local marathoners deal with warm weather in Boston
Apr. 16—At least four Ashtabula County runners braved warm conditions and finished the Boston Marathon on Monday morning.
Four veteran runners said the weather was a challenge.
"It was all about survival ... [at] mile 6 I thought I might not finish," said Katherine Huggins who has run many Boston marathons.
She said one of the reasons she kept going was she knew people were tracking her on the Internet.
Huggins finished in a time of 3:33:11 which was only several minutes slower than last year.
"It was a huge factor," said Erik van't Veer of the weather that made the 26.2 miles a challenge.
"At the starting line it was already in the mid-60s," he said.
He started cramping between on the 16th mile.
Van't Veer, of Ashtabula, finished in a time of 3:46:47 after he ran 3:36:13 last year.
"We intended to go around 3:20, but we had to slow it down," he said.
Van't Veer said he wasn't disappointed with his finish considering the conditions.
"It got to the point where we just had to hold on," he said.
Marathoners generally like colder temperatures and on Monday many people were struggling.
"It was a little bit of a struggle towards the end. I saw at least three people go down," said Craig Golen of Jefferson.
He said he was very happy with his performance setting a Boston Marathon best of 3:27:21 with the condition.
Golen said he used gels and salt tablets throughout the run.
"Overall I'm happy," he said.
Steve Locy, of Roaming Shores, said it was a really difficult race.
"It was rough. It was my 25th marathon, and my slowest," he said. "I started cramping up at mile 7," Locy said.
He said he was spraying water over himself throughout the race and hydrated well before hand but it wasn't enough.
Hellen Obiri of Kenya won the women's race in a time of 2:22:37 and Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia won the men's race in a time of 2:06:17, which was the 10th fastest time in Boston Marathon history which included 128 editions of the world famous race.
The race is on Patriots' Day every year, which is a state-wide holiday in Massachusetts, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to cheer the runners along the course from Hopkinton east to downtown Boston.
