112th Boston Marathon is One for
the Ages Race available on-demand at WCSN.com
for the next 12 months by: BAA April 25, 2008
Boston, Mass.
-- Twelve months after inclement weather threatened the 2007 Boston Marathon,
Patriots' Day 2008 featured blue skies, mild temperatures, and record-breaking
performances. Robert Cheruiyot and Ernst Van Dyk further established themselves
as Boston legends, Dire Tune won possibly the
most thrilling Boylston
Street sprint the race has ever seen, and nearly
22,000 runners finished the second-largest Boston ever.
Fans can view the complete broadcast of the race free
and on-demand at WCSN.com for the next 12 months thanks, in part, to the support
of Official Race Sponsor adidas.
Among the
many highlights of Monday's race:
The totals of 25,283 entrants, 22,375 starters, and
21,963 finishers each rank as #2 all-time at Boston, trailing only the 100th running of
the race in 1996.
The total of 10,439 female entrants and 8,935
female finishers were both new Boston records.
Robert Cheruiyot joined Clarence DeMar, Gerard
Cote, and Bill Rodgers as the only men to have won the Boston Marathon four
times or more.
Cheruiyot's winning time of 2:07:46 is the sixth
fastest ever run on the course.
Dire Tune (22 years old) became the youngest
champion, male or female, since Joan Benoit (21 years old) in
1979.
Tune's 2-second margin of victory over Alevtina
Biktimarova is the closest finish in the history of Boston's women's
division.
Ernst Van Dyk's seventh victory in the men's push
rim wheelchair division ties him with Clarence DeMar for most Boston Marathon
titles for a man. They trail only Jean Driscoll, who won eight women's push
rim wheelchair titles.
The total prize purse of $796,000, funded by
principal sponsor John Hancock, was a 38% increase from 2007. Both Cheruiyot
and Tune received $150,000 for their victories.
With his victory, Cheruiyot moves into second
place, behind Martin Lel, in the 2007-2008 World Marathon Majors Series, which
concludes in New
York on November 2.
Cheruiyot also became Boston's all-time career earnings leader, having won
$469,000 in prize money and course record bonuses in Boston.
Neil Weygandt completed his 42nd consecutive Boston
Marathon, the longest active streak, and believed to be the longest in
Boston
history.
There were 1,363,982 unique visitors to the Boston
Marathon race-day website (www.bostonmarathon.org) on Patriots' Day.
Collectively, they viewed more than 10 million
pages.
198,267 emails and text messages were issued
through the AT&T Athlete Alert Program, notifying registrants of the
progress of their friends and family along the
course.
The 113th Boston Marathon is scheduled for Monday,
April 20, 2009.