Marathon stride-by-stride webcast, continued10:45 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- There are four runners over 80 years old in today's race: John Cahill, 80, of Salt Lake City; Mike Fremont, 82, of Cincinnati; Willis Greenaway, 81, of Summerland, B.C., and Carlton Mendell, 82, of Portland, Maine. This is Mendell's 27th consecutive Boston Marathon. Among the 83 runners in their 70s is 76-year-old Keizo Yamada of Kanagawa, Japan, who won the race in 1953 and is still one of the best runners in the world in his age group. 70-year-old Bruce Migell of Newton, Mass., is running Boston for the 33rd consecutive year. 10:39 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- The Boston Marathon is an international event, drawing 2,937 foreign entries, or nearly 15 percent of the field of 20,328. Canada is the best represented nation after the US, with 1,608 entries. There are 174 Japanese, 172 Brits, 171 South Koreans, 137 Germans, and 116 Mexicans. Of the Koreans, 150 live Seoul alone, giving that city more entries than Cambridge, Mass. 10:32 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- This is the 10-year anniversary of Cosmas Ndeti's course record of 2:07:15, set on a cool day in 1994 when records were broken in the men's and women's open division and the men's and women's wheelchair divisions. Today's heat will make the task of breaking Ndeti's record just that much more difficult -- though there's a $25,000 bonus for the runner who does. 10:27 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- In terms of on-site media coverage, the Boston Marathon ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the largest single-day sporting event in the world. More than 1,100 media members, representing 250 outlets, received media credentials last year. 10:21 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- The Boston Marathon is a major fundraising event for many charities. Through the BAA's Marathon Charity Program approximately 1,100 participants representing 16 charities are expected to raise more than $7 million. 10:15 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- Ken Saxton of Huntington Beach, Calif., is racing in his first Boston Marathon. But unlike the other 20,000-plus competitors Saxton will run the entire 26.2 miles in bare feet. Saxton, 48, calls himself America's premier barefoot roadrunner, and believes wearing shoes in not natural. "There is nothing in our evolutionary, or creationist, or whatever history you believe in, that prepares our bodies or feet for shoes," he says. 10:05 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- The man you may see on the course with the t-shirt reading "This is my 100th marathon" is 66-year-old Ben Matthews of Dallas. Matthews ran his first marathon in 1981, and is often wins his age group. He ran a marathon March 21st so he would reach 100 at Boston, his favorite race and one he's run at 17 times before. 10 a.m.: In Hopkinton -- Three mobility impaired runners -- Jason Pisano of West Warwick, R.I., Shaunarine Ramnot of Guyana, and Brendan Sullivan of Charlestown -- have just started their race. They are the first athletes of the day to begin the 26.2-mile trek to Boston. This is the 10th straight Boston Marathon for Pisano, who has Cerebral Palsey. Ramnot, who walks with a leg brace as a result of polio, and Sullivan, who was born with Spina Bifida and also uses a leg brace, are competing in their first Boston. 8 a.m.: In Hopkinton - Boston.com will provide live, stride-by-stride coverage of the Boston Marathon beginning at 10 a.m. The first competitors, a group of 11 mobility-impaired athletes, will start at that time. The wheelchair and handcycle racers begin their 26.2-mile trek at 11:25, followed six minutes later by a group of two dozen elite women, who have a separate start this year for the first time. The gun will sound at noon for the elite men and rest of the 20,000 officials runners, male and female, along with thousands of unofficial participants known as "bandits."
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