BOSTON, MASS. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Many Chicagoans are among those lacing up today for the Boston Marathon.
This is the 50th marathon for Nick Bensen, president of the Oak Park Runners Club. Bensen is so into marathons, he and his wife ran one on their wedding day.
“We went to Las Vegas and dressed as bride and groom,” Bensen said.
He’s run Boston twice already so he knows to avoid the temptation to start out too fast when the course is downhill and nerves are high.
“It’s very easy to run faster than you should, at the beginning of the race, which seems good at the time,” Bensen said.
But, he said the hills later in the race will be even more punishing.
Megan Leahy of Wilmette knows about “Heartbreak Hill” even though this is her first official time running Boston. She qualified over a decade ago but didn’t run because she was pregnant. She said she ran half the marathon to support her sister in 2010.
“That was pre-bombing when they were a little bit less strict about security, so I was able to run the last 13 with her, and I did get to see a lot of the hill,” Leahy recalled. Even if you’re not feeling great in the beginning or the middle, it’s such a long race. There’s time to turn it around and remedy that.”
Leahy said that sister had finished the race when the bombing happened ten years ago.
Bensen also knew people running Boston the year of the bombing. He passed the memorial near the finish line touring ahead of the race.
“It brought us back to that time and place…sort of a solemn moment,” Bensen said.
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