Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on April 22, 2014
BOSTON — In the exact spot where a deadly bomb ended the Boston Marathon a year ago, fans lined the sidewalk, almost 10 deep, outside the Boylston Street Marathon Sports running store. They were hanging over the guard rails and peeking through the decorative country flags, using their vocal cords to push runners down the final block of the 2014 race.
On the other side of the finish line, elated athletes slowed from marathon pace to a walk, trying to catch their breath. Some started to hobble, others reached out for a Boston Athletic Association volunteer for support as they found their feet, but all were looking to claim their finisher’s medals.
Then questions started to swirl, but not ones like a year earlier.
“Did Shalane Flanagan win?” they kept asking. “Nope. Seventh,” a volunteer would say.
The glow from successfully completing 26.2 miles would temporarily leave their faces when told that the favorite American female, and a Massachusetts native, didn’t bring the trophy home.
“But, do you know who won the men’s race?” another volunteer asked. “Meb!”
“So, that wasn’t a joke way back there!” one runner said.
Meb Keflezighi, a United States citizen, won the men’s open division in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 57 seconds. He is the first American to win the Boston Marathon since 1983.
Overall, the disappointment of Flanagan not winning — after leading for 19 miles — rarely lasted longer than a split second. An American had won the men’s race and if there was any year for the 31-year drought to be broken, it was this year.
“I just want to be patriotic, it’s Patriots Day,” Sandy McKay, of Jackson, N.J., said, after finishing in 3:54:49 while wearing red, white and blue stars and stripes. “I just wanted to prove that we are strong and we will go on. I’m all about the outfit and I’m all about us. … It’s awesome. It’s about time.”
Hours earlier, as Keflezighi’s win unfolded, the spectators along Boylston rode similar waves of emotion before the San Diego resident broke the tape.
As the wheelchair racers finished first, the Jumbotron stayed focused on the lead Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo had built when she broke off from the lead pack in the women’s race. When the defending women’s champion passed mile 25 with Flanagan out of sight, the crowd’s focus moved to watching Jeptoo pick up her final kick for the home stretch down Commonweath Avenue, right on Hereford Street and left on Boylston.
The cheers flowed down the street, like the wave circling Fenway Park, as she set a new women’s course record in 2:18:57.
After Jeptoo broke the tape and kissed the pavement, the video feed switched back to the men’s race where Keflezighi had briefly built a lead of minute.
When the splits between Keflezighi and Wilson Chebet of Kenya were shown on the screen, the grandstand roared.
Seconds later, the camera angle change and Chebet, dressed in orange, was in sight, pulling closer.
New splits were up.
Keflezighi’s lead had been cut to 9 seconds. Then 6.
Then groans from the sidelines.
The crowd had wanted to welcome Flanagan in first, but still gave the Marblehead native a standing ovation when she crossed in 2:22:02. Keflezighi was its last chance to go wild.
Maintaining the slim lead, he passed mile 25 and began to kick.
Again, a right on Hereford and a left on Boylston revved up the crowd.
With another a look behind him, a kick, a long stride, a fist pump, Keflezighi had the race closed, spreading his arms wide as he crossed the finish line.
“When the Red Sox won and put the trophy on the finish line, I wanted to do that for the runners,” he said after the race. “This is probably the most meaningful victory for an American, just because of what happened last year.”
A soft U-S-A, U-S-A chant tried to break out, but the cheers and celebrations of other finishers took over the airwaves. An American won, but there were still 35,975-plus from across the globe who deserved similar support, proving nothing altered the Boston Marathon atmosphere.