Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma wins 2024 Boston Marathon 2024 in runaway
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia and Hellen Obiri of Kenya pose with the trophy after winning the professional Men's and Women's Divisions during the 128th Boston Marathon on April 15, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)
HOPKINTON, Mass. - The 128th Boston Marathon was held Monday, bringing tens of thousands of runners to New England for the annual race.
The world’s oldest marathon is traditionally held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday in April. The 26.2-mile course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.
FILE - Runners celebrate at the finish line at the Boston Marathon 2023 on April 17, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Lauren Owens Lambert/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Two-time defending champion Evans Chebet hoped to be the first runner to win three in a row since 2008.
This year’s race is also the 10th anniversary of Meb Keflezighi's win in 2014, when he snapped a three-decade American drought the year after the finish line bombing.
Get live updates on the Boston Marathon here and other things to know about the race.
12:09 p.m. ET: Hellen Obiri wins women’s elite race
Hellen Obiri defended her title in the women's race, outsprinting fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi down Boylston Street to win by eight seconds.
Obiri is the first woman to win back-to-back Boston Marathons since 2005.
11:44 a.m. ET: Sisay Lemma wins Boston Marathon 2024
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia set a blistering pace and held on to win the Boston Marathon on Monday, running alone through most of the course to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds — the 10th fastest time in the race's 128-year history.
The 2021 London champion, Lemma arrived in Boston with the fastest time in the field, becoming just the fourth person ever to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year. And he showed it on the course, separating himself from the pack in the first three miles and opening a lead of more than half of a mile.
Lemma ran the first half in 60:19.
Fellow Ethiopian Mohames Esa closed the gap through the last few miles, finishing second by 41 seconds; two-time defending champion Evans Chebet was third.
11:15 a.m. ET: Final wave of runners begins Boston Marathon
The last wave of runners just crossed the starting line, beginning the 26.2-mile trek.
11 a.m. ET: Wheelchair division winners
Marcel Hug of Switzerland overcame a crash and captured his seventh men’s wheelchair Boston Marathon title, setting a new course record Monday of 1 hour, 15 minutes, 33 seconds.
In the women’s race, Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper won her first Boston crown, crossing in 1:35:11.
It was Rainbow-Cooper's first major win. The 22-year-old was seventh in Boston a year ago.
10 a.m. ET: Boston Marathon Wave 1 begins
The first of four waves of non-elite runners started the race about 26.2 miles west of Boston.
A field of almost 30,000 runners total will make the trek to Copley Square.
The final wave starts at 11:15 a.m. ET.
9:47 a.m. ET: Elite women's race kicks off
The professional women’s racers have crossed the starting line for the 128th Boston Marathon.
Top Americans include Emma Bates, who finished fifth last year. The 31-year-old former Boston resident stepped in a pothole midway through the Chicago Marathon last fall, tearing a tissue in her foot. The injury led to a setback that kept her from competing in the Olympic marathon trials in February. So she’s back in Boston, a year after she led the pack through Brookline with the crowd chanting her name.
Kenyan Hellen Obiri, a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000 meters, is among the favorites in Monday’s race.
Sara Hall, who has reached the podium in two major marathons, joins Bates in a strong American contingent.
9:37 a.m. ET: Elite men's race kicks off
The professional men’s race in the 128th Boston Marathon is underway.
Two-time defending champion Evans Chebet hopes to be the first runner to win three in a row since 2008.
A victory for Chebet would be the first Boston three-peat since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot won three in a row from 2006 to 2008. He also hopes a victory will earn him a spot in this year’s Paris Olympics.
Despite winning six of his last seven races, including major victories in Boston and New York, Chebet was left off the provisional roster for the Kenyan marathon team. He said last week he hopes a strong finish will rekindle his candidacy.
Kenyans have won the last four men’s races in Boston and three straight in the women’s division.
9:10 a.m. ET: Wheelchair divisions start Boston Marathon
Hopkinton, MA - April 15: The women's wheelchair field gets underway. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Boston Marathon men’s and women’s wheelchair divisions are underway.
Both divisions began shortly after 9 a.m. local time, taking on the 26.2-mile course.
8:58 a.m. ET: Singing of the national anthem
Boston native Ayla Brown is singing the National Anthem to kick off the 128th Boston Marathon, followed by a flyover.
Brown is a morning show host on Country 102.5 FM in Boston.
8:15 a.m. ET: Emma Bates will try to beat Kenyans and dodge potholes
FILE - Emma Bates runs during the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 6, 2022, in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/New York Road Runners via Getty Images)
American Emma Bates is hoping to improve on last year's fifth-place finish when she lines up for the Boston Marathon on Monday. She'll also be looking out for potholes.
That's because a pothole in Chicago last year left her with an injury that took her out of the Olympic trials.
Bates was the top American in Boston last year with a personal best that broke her old mark by more than a minute.
7:45 a.m. ET: Boston Marathon starting line moved 100 years ago
Once a year for the last 100 years, Hopkinton becomes the center of the running world thanks to a quirk of geography and history that made it the starting line for the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon.
The Boston Marathon was born next door in Ashland in 1897. But the start was moved to Hopkinton in 1924 to conform with a new international marathon standard.
On race day, this otherwise sleepy New England town serendipitously located 26.2 miles from Boston swells to three times its size – hosting some 30,000 runners.
"It wouldn’t be the Boston Marathon without Hopkinton," Meb Keflezighi told the Associated Press. Keflezighi was conferred with honorary town citizenship after winning the race in 2014, the year after the finish line bombing.
"As the sign says, ‘It all starts here.’"
7:30 a.m. ET: Boston Marathon bombing anniversary
Monday marks 11 years since two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon finish line, killing 3 people and injuring more than 260.
Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.
During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.
Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been in a gunfight with police and was run over by his brother as he fled.
Last year, families of those killed in the bombing marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy by slowly walking together to the memorial sites near the finish line and laying wreaths.
FILE - A ceremony was held at the two bombing sites on Boylston Street to mark the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2023. (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
6:30 a.m. ET: Military marchers start 128th Boston Marathon
A group Massachusetts National Guard members early Monday crossed the Boston Marathon start line painted in honor of Hopkinton, the town that has hosted the marathon for the past century.
Race Director Dave McGillivray sent the group of about 30 people off from Hopkinton shortly after 6 a.m. local time.
When is the Boston Marathon 2024?
The Boston Marathon men’s and women’s wheelchair divisions begin at 9:02 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. ET, respectively.
The professional men’s race starts at 9:37 a.m. ET, while the professional women’s race kicks off at 9:47 a.m. ET.
The first of four waves of non-elite runners begins at 10 a.m. ET. The final wave starts at 11:15 a.m. ET.
See a full list of Boston Marathon start times here.
Boston Marathon end time
Professional men are expected to finish around 11:30 a.m., and the elite women are likely to finish just before noon.
Last year’s Boston Marathon winner Evans Chebet won in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 54 seconds.
How to watch the Boston Marathon
WCVB Channel 5 covers the Boston Marathon locally, and ESPN covers it nationally.
For those interested in following certain runners, the B.A.A. Racing App features live tracking of all participants, interactive course maps, and more race information.
Qualifying time for the Boston Marathon
Runners have a total of six hours (6:00:00) from the time the last starter crosses the start line to complete the course, according to the race’s website.
As one of the six World Marathon Majors, the Boston Marathon is open to anyone 18 and up but they must qualify in order to participate.
For men between the ages of 18 and 34, the qualifying time is 3 hours exactly. For women and non-binary runners, the qualifying time is 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Here is the full list of qualifying times by age group and gender.
This story was reported from Cincinnati. The Associated Press contributed.