It’s Tuesday, Boston.
🍹🤫 Pssst. There’s a tequila dinner on a rooftop this weekend. Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport’s Lifted restaurant is hosting a dinner and tequila pairing, Alma Del Jaguar Tequila & Terroir, on Thursday. B-Side members: Snag your $50 ticket before they run out!
👀 What’s on tap today:
- Boston’s next election? Nothing special.
- Karen Read part two is ON
- Motion is lotion
Up first…
Image: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe. Illustration: Gia Orsino
Another year of picture-perfect finishes, unicorns, and ugly crying over strangers is in the books. And from the weather to the vibes, Marathon Monday was simply GLORIOUS!
Here’s your official race recap:
🏃🏾♀️ Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi set a COURSE RECORD. Lokedi spoiled reigning champ Hellen Obeiri’s attempt at a three-peat with a blazing time of 2:17:22. Even sweeter: After she crossed the line, she ran right into her mom’s arms. :’)
🏃🏾 John Korir of Kenya shared the victory with his bro. His incredible 2:04:45 finish (even after taking a digger to the face) is the third-fastest of all time, making him and his brother, Wesley, who won in 2012, the first sibling duo to win Boston. Now THAT’S an impressive gene pool.
🏃🏻Whit Blair took the win in the nonbinary division. Blair crossed the line in 2:22:44 — “the fastest a nonbinary runner has completed the course in that division,” according to GBH.
🧑🏻🦽 Marcel Hug secured his eighth Boston W. And it wasn’t even close. Hug finished over four minutes ahead of the second place winner.
👩🏻🦽Susannah Scaroni reclaimed her crown. The 2023 winner came out on top again after making a big move in the Newton hills, finishing in 1:35:20.
⭐ As for the other 29,995+ athletes … You can find their results here.
💥 Des Linden went out with a BANG. The 2018 Boston champion finished this year’s race in 17th place. But it was a bittersweet finish: Linden announced this year’s race was her last professional marathon with a “love letter” to Boston.
👨🏾🦽 19-year-old Bostonian Delmace Mayo made his marathon debut. JP’s Mayo, one of the most promising young para-athletes in the country, pushed through a painful blister to finish his first-ever marathon in an impressive 2:04:30.
🏅 Marathon icon Paula Radcliffe earned her sixth star. 51-year-old Radcliffe is a four-time Olympian, a three-time winner at London and NYC, and held the marathon world record for 16 years … but until this year, she’d never run Boston. Now, it’s just another feather in her cap.
🐴 Paul Revere crossed the finish line. In honor of this week’s Mass250 celebrations, a Revere impersonator on horseback made quite a spectacle before the race by galloping down the street to the finish line to read a proclamation: “The runners are coming!”
🪧 Per usual, the crowd came through with the signs. From “Run if you think I’m sexy” to “I also like attention” to “rate your chafe,” we were impressed, as always, by this year’s sign creativity. Here’s a compilation of some of our faves.
ADVERTISEMENT
🍣 🥇 If your legs are still recovering from standing too long on Boylston (or, you know, from actually running 26.2 miles), allow us to present a tastier kind of endurance challenge. We partnered with Toast to map out some of the best places to eat along the Boston Marathon route, from coffee and donuts in Hopkinton to sushi at Heartbreak Hill. Check out the full map now and relive Marathon Monday the best way — seated, snacking, and stress-free.
🗳️ Boston’s next election won’t be anything special. Literally. Boston probably won’t need to hold a special election to replace City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson after all. After pleading guilty to federal corruption charges, the city councilor said she’ll wait to step down until after the May 8 deadline to have a special election has passed. But even if she didn’t, the council took matters into their own hands. It passed its own resolution to nix the special election due to concerns of low engagement — though it still needs a thumbs up from Beacon Hill.
🔍 Mass. is officially back in its true crime era. And by that we mean, opening statements for part two of the Karen Read trial are TODAY. Read has said she’s “anxious but ready” for the retrial, about a year after her first trial ended in a hung jury. Since then, exposure of the case’s notorious defendant has only grown — with high-profile magazine features, a docuseries, and over $867,000 in her crowdfunded defense fund. If you want to keep up with the trial, it’ll be broadcast live every day, and you can catch up on everything else you need to know here.
🇺🇸 President Trump’s immigration crackdown kept some runners from Boston. Although Mayor Michelle Wu and the B.A.A. insist that international visitors are fully welcome for the marathon, at least some runners passed on this year’s race based on Trump’s policy and rhetoric. Though we don’t know exactly how many runners made this call, according to the Associated Press, one Canadian runner stayed home despite earning a bib this year because she’s “soured” on the U.S. Another former Olympian copped to feeling more nervous about travel.
🎸 You’ve heard of Porchfest, but allow us to introduce … DorchFest! A.k.a. Dorchester’s annual porchfest event. This year, it’s going down on May 31 from noon to 5 p.m. This will be the event’s fourth year, and per usual, there will be tons of musicians across genres — from hip-hop to folk to rap — playing concerts on local porches in the Ashmont Adams neighborhood. It’s a little too late to sign up to perform, but the volunteer form is still open.
Image courtesy of The Boston Globe. Illustration: Gia Orsino
Slay the day. Rep the step. LET’S GO! Or, motion is lotion and exercise is the potion.
If you recognize those slogans, you’re already well acquainted with Mike Beeman, who’s run 110 marathons, including a truly mind boggling 48 straight Bostons (that’s over 1,000 miles run on Boston’s course alone).
Thanks to his running stats and joyful presence, Beeman has built a TikTok following of over 30,000 people, where he shares a lot of his race experience. This year, we got an OOTD for race day, a “what’s in my fanny pack” video, a bib pickup vlog, and a tear-jerking look at the end of his race.
— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario
🏆 Thanks for reading! If Gia had a nickel for every “motion is lotion” sign she saw on the marathon course … she’d have three nickels.
💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Toast, for supporting local journalism and helping local restaurants run smoothly on Boston’s busiest day.
🚃 The results are in: B-Siders hate a crowded commute. 52% of readers said they’d rather run the Boston Marathon right now than commute with marathon crowds for a month. One reader said: “Both of these would probably kill me… but this one at least won’t drag it out.”
💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].
