Rolling hills and warm New England weather were just some of the challenges faced by six Chatham-Kent runners who competed in today's 121st Boston Marathon.
Blenheim’s Wayne Newcombe finished first locally, running the 26.2-miles in three hours, one minute, 52 seconds.
"The heat and then the hills [made it] a lot tougher than I thought," says Newcombe. "I think in Chatham-Kent, we don't have the hills to train quite the way we should to be ready to do this."
Chatham’s Caen Suni clocked in at three hours, 33 minutes, 13 seconds, followed closely by Steve Moore and Krista Cranston, also from Chatham, who both finished in three hours, 35 minutes, 39 seconds.
Wallaceburg’s Joe Perry crossed the finish line in three hours, 54 minutes, 57 seconds. Jeni Powell from Chatham finished in four hours, 38 minutes, 33 seconds.
This is only Newcombe's second time running the world's most prestigious marathon -- his first was in 1999. He's back in Boston after a 10-year hiatus from running.
"I started up [again] three or four years ago, and just wanted to train a little bit harder and run a little quicker," he says. "I was trying to run two hours and 45 minutes, but that's just the way it works out."
Newcombe says he won't be running the marathon again. Rather, he's going to focus on races that are flatter.
-With files from Caryn Ceolin