By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
Crowds lining the Boston Marathon route helped three Huskies finish the 26.2-mile journey Monday from Hopinkton to Copley Square in record-breaking heat, which reached 87 degrees.
Sixth-year pharmacy student Adrian Wong, international affairs co-op coordinator Joani Lamachia and class of 1981 alumnus Mark Kreditor crossed the finish line outside the Boston Public Library still standing and thanking those cheering them on.
“Every year at the Marathon, the crowds are amazing and what I look forward to each year,” said Wong, who ran his sixth Boston Marathon and seventh marathon overall. “They are probably the reason that many people finish and especially this year with it being so hot.”
Boston Athletic Association (BAA) officials warned runners about the high temperatures forecasted for the Marathon and said runners the couldefer to the 2013 race to avoid the heat. The BAA estimated that roughly 5,000 runners did not participate, but only 427 runners officially deferred, which required picking up their race packets in person at the weekend marathon expo and then not running, the BAA said in a report Monday.
Wong’s time of 2:53:48 qualifies him for next year’s race, which was his goal as he hopes to one day break the Marathon’s “streaking” – running consecutive marathons year after year – record.
Neil Weygandt retired from the Boston Marathon this year and currently holds the record of 45 consecutive marathons. Boston Marathon legend and local John Kelley ran 61 Boston Marathons between 1928 and 1992, but did not break Wegandt’s streak due to missed races.
“I feel that when people lose their interest in something, it’s because they haven’t set goals,” he said. “Every year I plan on coming back to Boston regardless of where I am … Having a long-range goal has constantly motivated me throughout school and I thought that was a good way to apply it to my running career as well.”
Wong said hopes to do the same, and said running gives him a sense of accomplishment and goal-setting. He plans to return and run every year even if, or after, he moves away.
“I plan to run every year that I’m alive,” Wong, 24, said.
With Monday’s hot temperatures, runners looked to keep themselves cool and on pace, but were advised to slow down by the BAA to avoid overheating and heat exhaustion. Even the heat was a battle for the Elite runners as they ran the course roughly 10 minutes slower than in 2011. Kenya’s Wesley Korir finished at 2:12:40 this year, while the 2011 winning time of 2:03:02 belonged to Kenya’s Geoffery Mutai.
Wong said that the crowd support is always key to get through any race and this year wasn’t any different. Not only did the spectators help, but his fraternity brothers of Beta Theta Pi and friends were along the route to cheer him along and meet at the finish.
“The crowd support is amazing,” he said. “But I can depend on my friends and fraternity brothers to always be there somewhere along the course to help cheer me on as well as others. I feel that motivation and support is really what gets people to the finish line in one piece.”
Faculty co-op coordinator Lamachia has been running since high school. At age 50, she said she was hoping to break four hours on the clock and did, coming in at 3:57:57.
“My goal [was] to run comfortably, finish strong and have fun,” she said.
This was her third Boston Marathon and seventh official marathon. She said she’s grown to love running and hates missing a session.
“I like the movement,” she said. “I like the freedom, I like the fresh air. I do all my running outside. I like the break from [everyday life]. I love it. I hardly really ever feel like not taking a run.”
Her passion for hitting the pavement, and having to train for Monday’s long run, encouraged her to begin running to Northeastern from her Arlington home. The commute is roughly seven miles and generally takes her just over an hour.
“It’s upped the efficiency of my running,” Lamachia said. “It’s my commute. It’s my contribution to the environment to save gas. It’s my contribution to my bank account to save money … I get to window shop in Cambridge.”
Running to work helped her fit in more training for the Marathon, she said. She qualified for Boston with a time from an Ohio marathon that she ran with her son in the fall.
She said the heat was an added challenge, but not one that held her back.
“It was a thoughtful race as you had to think about how to stay cool at the same time you were thinking about pacing,” she said. “One of the things that is challenging but fun about marathons is that you never know what you’ll get on marathon day and you have to go with the flow.”
Her goal these days is to complete one marathon a decade and like Wong, she hopes to be running into her 80s.
Mark Kreditor graduated from Northeastern in 1981 with a bachelor of science in marketing and now lives in Texas. He ran his first marathon as a bandit – an unofficial, bibbless runner – as a junior in 1980, and again in ’81. In 1983, he ran for charity as a member of the American Medical Joggers Association.
He was inspired to run the Boston Marathon in the spring of 1979 while on co-op when he met that year’s winner, Bill Rodgers.
“I was selling racketball rackets, backgammon boards and jump ropes [on co-op] and Bill Rodgers Running Center bought an order from me in 1979,” he said. “I was at the Quincy YMCA when Bill Rodgers won the Marathon and I had just met his brother delivering this order on my co-op job and I said, ‘Wow, I’m going to run.’ … I never stopped running. I’ve been running for 33 years.”
He returned to the course this year to run his fourth and final Boston Marathon, with the chance to run with his daughters attending Boston University.
“There is nothing in the world like running the Boston Marathon,” he said. “And as much as I would like to tell you it was easy as when I ran them as a junior and senior at Northeastern, that would be a lie.”
