Watch Meb Keflezighi finish the 2024 Boston Marathon, 10 years after his triumphant win
The American had another emotional finish at the 2024 Boston Marathon.
Ten years after Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the Boston Marathon in more than 30 years, the veteran runner had another emotional finish at the 2024 Boston Marathon.
Wearing bib number 2014 to commemorate the year he won the hallowed race, Keflezighi, 48, finished the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:08:58.
Back in 2014, Keflezighi was seen as a long shot to win the first Boston Marathon following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
No American had won the Boston Marathon Men’s Open Division since 1983, and a couple weeks short of his 39th birthday, Keflezighi was theoretically past his prime.
Meb’s crowning achievement, a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, had come nearly a decade earlier.
“My best version of myself was behind me in terms of the time, but Boston is all about the competition,” Keflezighi told The Boston Globe. “And I was ready to do that that day.”
Meb was part of the lead pack from the start, keeping pace with frontrunner Josphat Boit. After Boit fell behind in the hills of Newton, Keflezighi grabbed the lead and never let go, winning the 2014 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:08:37.
For the 2024 Boston Marathon, Keflezighi ran a much more comfortable pace, finishing almost exactly an hour slower than his 2014 times, averaging 7:13 per mile.
After crossing the finish line shortly after 1:10 p.m., Keflezighi told WCVB that the higher-than-expected temperatures made running the race more difficult.
“Today it was a struggle,” Keflezighi said. “I felt the humidity. It was 98 percent.”
Nevertheless, Keflezighi said the crowds and fellow runners kept him motivated.
“There were a lot of people cheering me on,” Keflezighi said. “It was a great atmosphere.”
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