Okayo KOs course record in her debut 4/16/02 - In her Boston Marathon debut, Margaret Okayo of Kenya took the lead yesterday around Route 128, setting up a two-woman, high-speed chase into Newton. The odds favored the chaser, countrywoman and two-time defending champion Catherine Ndereba, who followed Okayo like a Southeast Expressway tailgater, a couple of steps behind, primed to pass at any moment.
Rop's win puts Kenyan men back in power 4/16/02 - He'd run one marathon before, so he knew he could go the distance. He'd seen a video of the course, so he knew all about the hills. And he knew that a man named Rodgers had won a few here.
Ndereba far from second-rate 4/16/02 - No shame. She did, after all, beat the course record. Look at it this way: Catherine Ndereba made 44 saves yesterday but needed to make a 45th. She tossed four touchdown passes on a day when the opposing quarterback threw five. She pitched a complete game, yet lost, 1-0.
Their absence didn't last long 4/16/02 - In case South Korean Lee Bong Ju had any foolish ideas about becoming a repeat Boston Marathon champion, the Kenyans let him know who's boss.
Support not up to speed 4/16/02 - The loneliness of the American distance runner continued yesterday at the Boston Marathon.
After 20 years, former runner-up returns for a fun run 4/16/02 - The crowds along the route didn't recognize him - and Dick Beardsley liked that. ''It was actually nice being a little bit inconspicuous out there,'' said the man who was one-half of one of the Boston Marathon's most famous showdowns. ''They didn't know who I was.''
At 43, Kipkemboi in prime of his life 4/16/02 - A couple of years made no difference to Joshua Kipkemboi. In fact, it might have spurred on the Kenyan runner yesterday.
VanDyk storms to second crown 4/16/02 - South African Ernst VanDyk - leaving his competition in another zip code - defended his wheelchair title in the Boston Marathon yesterday in fine fashion. The women's crown went to Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland.
Thanks to weather, runners kept their cool 4/16/02 - All but 700 of yesterday's 14,837 starters (out of 16,936 entrants) had finished the marathon course by the time the clock was turned off at 6 p.m. The breakdown was 9,018 men (out of 9,394 starters) and 5,119 women (out of 5,443).
Occupying oneself the first challenge 4/16/02 - Nearly 15,000 official entrants converged on this old New England town dominated by clapboard homes and front-porch piazzas yesterday morning for the 106th running of the Boston Marathon.
Volunteers are over the top 4/16/02 - Everyone is a hero on Marathon day, but those who realize that fact most fully camp along Commonwealth Avenue in the elegantly manicured neighborhood where Brookline, Newton, and Boston come together. For runners it is called simply Heartbreak Hill.
Coverage barely got off ground 4/16/02 - No live pictures. That nightmare ranks at the top of the worst-case scenarios in the handbook of Boston Marathon television coverage.
For the most part, there were miles of smiles 4/16/02 - Last Friday's Globe profiled six ''Faces in the Pack,'' participants in the 106th Boston Marathon, each striving for personal goals. Nearly all their goals were met yesterday.
Pack will be chasing Lee and Ndereba 4/15/02 - The Seoul Man doesn't mind going solo. Not last year, when he came out of the pack to end a decade of Kenyan domination. And not today, when Lee Bong Ju again will be the only Korean contender up against an African phalanx in the 106th running of the Boston Marathon.
Race director's heart is on the course 4/15/02 - Aside from the required muscles and fitness, the running shoes, the blisters, carbo loading, and water stops, this oldest and most historic Marathon in the world is all about emotion. And no one knows that better than race director David McGillivray.
Security, runners stretch for race 4/15/02 - With bright yellow plastic bags slung over their shoulders like royal sashes, thousands of marathon runners yesterday strolled through Boston, a city transformed into a giant racetrack.
Going the distance to keep runners connected 4/15/02 - Nextel Communications, marking its fifth year as the ''official wireless sponsor'' of today's Boston Marathon, is greatly expanding a system that lets the 16,638 registered runners arrange to have automatic updates of their progress in the race sent to friends.
British soldiers honor attack victim 4/15/02 - Seventeen British soldiers may be cursing their combat boots as they struggle to conquer Heartbreak Hill today. But the men of the Honourable Artillery Company will be grateful for one thing: They won't be dragging a 2,000-pound Royal Navy field gun behind them.
Boston, London? Apples, oranges 4/15/02 - Is the London Marathon - which yesterday produced a world record in the men's race and a near-miss in the women's - the ''World's Greatest Race,'' as its organizers claim?
Getting defender Lee to brag an uphill battle 4/14/02 - Until Lee Bong Ju ended Kenya's decade-long domination with his startling triumph here last year, the Seoul Man was considered a second banana, no matter how many laurel wreaths he collected.
Setting bar for greatness 4/14/02 -- Sometimes, Catherine Ndereba would walk the 2 miles to her Nairobi primary school. Sometimes, she'd run. The school didn't serve lunch, so she'd have to return home, then hurry back to school. Counting the 2 miles back home, that's 8 miles a day.
For these reporters, there's legwork to do 4/14/02 -- Many a media member, in the midst of a long day of Boston Marathon coverage, has been heard to mutter, ''It'd be easier to run in this than it is to cover it.'' That's just what some of the people who normally bring us the news will be doing.
Van Dyk not party to surprise this time
South African Ernst Van Dyk's first Boston Marathon was so-so, an eighth-place finish in the wheelchair division in 1999 with a time of 1 hour 29 minutes 51 seconds. His second attempt in Boston, however, was one for the books.
No second thoughts this time
4/13/02 - Silvio Guerra has gotten used to being in the shadow of the winner at the Boston Marathon. In 1999, he was runner-up to Kenyan Joseph Chebet. Last year, Korean Lee Bong Ju slipped ahead of him.
Can Americans pull off huge upset?
4/13/02 - Josh Cox sat shoulder to shoulder with 31 of the world's elite marathon runners, the A-Rods and MJs of the huff-and-puff set, yesterday morning at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel.
The end is fear: Fortunes change at Haunted Mile
4/12/02 - It starts when most folks think the race is over. Heartbreak is just past, the Hancock up ahead. "A lot of people come off the hills thinking the most difficult part of the course is behind them," says Joan Benoit Samuelson. Then comes the Haunted Mile, which has spooked generations of marathoners for more than a century.
Path to distinction is a course in endurance
4/12/02 - The sign in Hopkinton says it all: ''It all starts here.'' What it ought to read, however, is: ''Boston, the Alpha and Omega of Marathons.''
Elite men: Making a run at Kenyans
4/12/02 - Even with its 10-year Boston Marathon men's winning streak snapped, Kenya dominated last year's race with eight finishers in the top 20, far more than any other country. Quick question: Which country was second with three top-20 finishers?
Elite women: Gaitenby is proving to be natural resource
4/12/02 - There was a time when Jill Gaitenby was no different from the rest of us. When she was a Boston College undergraduate, and the school shut down for Patriots Day, she grabbed a beverage, hung with friends, and watched the Boston Marathon from various points along Commonwealth Avenue.
SporTView: Footnote to chapter and verse
4/12/02 - Viewers under age 35 may not realize that the Boston Marathon once was a rather simple affair conducted annually on the April 19 Patriots Day holiday.
Bleakney's optimistic he can be a big wheel in race
4/12/02 - Adam Bleakney has raced in the wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon every year since 1997, and placed in the top 10 in 1999 (10th, 1 hour 31 minutes). Bleakney has had his share of problems the last couple of years, though, with flat tires in his last three marathons, including Boston and Los Angeles.
Springfield grad Coates betters with age
4/12/02 - udd Coates has two important dates on his April calendar. One is the Boston Marathon, which Coates has run eight times. The other is his birthday - April 6 - which is tied directly to the Marathon because it determines in which category he'll run the race. So for the past five years (or since he turned 40 in 1997), Coates has entered as a master.
Faces in the pack
4/12/02 - Cathi Campbell did not spend months training for this year's Boston Marathon in hopes of collecting a big paycheck Monday. Nor did Brian Herr, Elizabeth Morin, Sarah Nixon, Thomas O'Hearn, or Dr. William Tan. They are typical ''Faces in the Crowd,'' from among the nearly 17,000 official entrants for Boston 2002, individuals running the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston for the experience, the challenge, or a special cause.
Kelley to be inducted into Distance Running Hall of Fame
4/12/02 - The National Distance Running Hall of Fame in Utica, N.Y., will honor four inductees in July, including John ''The Younger'' Kelley, who competed in 34 Boston Marathons from 1949-92.
Runners will carry memories with them 4/9/02 - The 62-story John Hancock Tower rises into view when Kristy Walsh runs Heartbreak Hill. Chris Mello, her longtime boyfriend, worked in that skyscraper before he died on American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11.
Hussein's brother following in footsteps 4/9/02 - When he was a child growing up in Kapsabet, Kenya, Mbarak Hussein often would gaze out his grandmother's window while getting dressed for school and watch older brother Ibrahim dash against time.
The running animal 4/9/02 - The marathon likely began not in Greece, but on the vast savannas of Africa some 2 million years ago. Under a beating equatorial sun, the runners would have plunged through the grass, aiming toward a column of circling buzzards many miles in the distance. Beneath the buzzards lay a fresh kill. And the runners - our distant ancestors - would have been racing the clock for survival: If they were fast, they would find food for their families; but if they were slow, they would find only bones, picked clean by other scavengers.
Heated battle, warm memories 4/7/02 - Their lives have taken divergent paths since intersecting on that ribbon of asphalt from Hopkinton to Boston for the 86th running of the Boston Marathon. In 1982, Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley were gladiators in singlets and running shoes.
Defending champions among Marathon elite 4/3/02 - The defending men's and women's champions, Lee Bong Ju of Korea and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, headline a field of 32 elite international athletes assembled for the 106th Boston Marathon April 15.
Nike swooshes its way into key Marathon site 3/26/02 - In a bid to get a jump on rival adidas, the official sneaker sponsor of the Boston Marathon, Nike Inc. is combining guerrilla marketing and a technique called ''station domination'' at a subway stop near the finish line that long-distance runners hope to cross April 15.
Since 1982, Jacques LeDuc has had designs on Marathon start 3/24/02 - Jacques LeDuc has competed in the Boston Marathon for the past five years
and is known more for his start than his finish. But without LeDuc, the other
runners wouldn't know where to begin.
Six months later, security a way of life 3/11/02 - A new normalcy is gradually settling in, six months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Be prepared to wait, to be questioned, and to show identification. State and local police are four months into plans for a dramatically stepped-up protective effort for next month's running of the Boston Marathon.
Children's battles inspire marathon bid 3/11/02 - Michael Cusson is spending three months training to run in this year's Boston Marathon. A small slice of time devoted to a good cause, he says, particularly when he thinks about how hard it is for his two children each day.
Champs Lee, Ndereba returning to Boston 3/08/02 - Lee Bong Ju of South Korea and Catherine "The Great" Ndereba of Kenya will
return next month to defend their titles at the 106th running of the Boston
Marathon, sponsor John Hancock announced yesterday.
Runner determined to fight liver disease 2/24/02 - E. Scott Hiser knows he does not have a runner's frame, but he sure has a runner's determination. The 41-year-old North Andover man, who stands 5-feet-8-inches tall and weighs about 205 pounds, plans to run his third Boston Marathon next month. Hiser is part of a team of 250 runners trying to raise $1 million for the American Liver Foundation.
Running for a cause 2/10/02 - The field behind Oakdale School was muddy on Monday but that didn't stop
10 fifth-graders and a teacher from running the last laps needed to make 100
miles. The 10 students ran a mile a week for 10 weeks -- or 100 miles -- to mark
Oakdale's 100th birthday.
Marathon runners find motivation in clubs 1/10/02 - Marathoners from across the region are bundling up and getting serious about training. Some do the long runs, speed work, and weight lifting alone. Others join a training club. Beyond offering motivation and support, clubs gives new runners "access to people who have been there, done that," said David Dobrzynski, executive director of the Road Runners Club of America.
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