Dumfries Running Club pair complete Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Dumfries Running Club members Fiona and Kerry Jardine travelled to Boston, USA, to run the 126th Boston marathon, held on April 18.

The pair were relieved to finally attend the event after originally planning to run the race in 2020 before Covid-19 emerged.

Returning to its traditional American state holiday Patriot’s Day schedule for the first time since 2019, the historic Boston marathon was back to its full glory, welcoming more than 30,000 participants from 122 countries.

To begin, all marathon runners boarded American-style school buses to the town of Hopkinton, where the race began in a series of wave starts. Unlike any city marathon the pair had run before, the 26.2-mile scenic route back to Boston was beautiful, lined with countryside, forests, and small bodies of water, all while passing through small towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick and Wellesley.

Although beautiful, the course offered no shade from the strong sun and by the halfway mark it began to get very warm and the sunburn began to take hold. Thousands of loud and enthusiastic Bostonians proudly lined the streets from start to finish generously handing out ice pops, sweets, drinks and cold sponges all serving as vital moments of relief and distraction from the heat and tiredness.

Just as runners’ legs begin to get tired the race reaches the town of Newton where participants encounter a series of hills before finally reaching the biggest climb the famous heartbreak hill, near Boston College at 21 miles, before the long 5.2 miles back into Boston and across the finish line on Boylston Street.

Somewhat disappointed with her run time of 5 hours 23 minutes, Fiona was relieved to cross the finish line and was proud to receive her Boston