Monday is Patriot's Day in Boston, Mass., and for 32,500 runners it will be their time to compete in the world's most famous marathon.
Three of those marathon entrants - Kathryn Lecesse, Blake Mason and Dennis Straussfogel - call Prince George home and they will be running in nasty weather conditions in the 42.195-kilometre race. Rain and cool winds gusting to 50 kilometres per hour are expected Monday, with temperatures ranging from 5 C to 9 C.
This will be the sixth Boston Marathon for Straussfogel, while Lecesse, 37, and Mason, 38, are running the 122nd annual race for the first time. Mason, 35, ran his first marathon last spring in Vancouver and clocked three hours and three minutes to meet the tough 3:10 standard for 35-39-year-old men to qualify for Boston. He will run in the first wave of 7,600 runners who gather in Hopkinton for the 1 p.m. PT start.
Lecesse will be in the second wave which starts at 1:25 p.m., followed by Straussfogel, part of the third wave which leaves the start area at 1:50 p.m. Lecesse, 37, needed t post a marathon finishing time of 3:40 or quicker to qualify in her 35-39-year-old age group. The 60-64-year-old male standard for Straussfogel was 3:55.
The first race of the day Monday, for mobility-impaired runners, starts at 11:40 a.m. PT, followed by wheelchair athletes at 12:02 p.m., hand-cycle racers at 12:25 p.m. and the elite female marathoners at 12:32 p.m.
