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Your 2025 Boston Marathon superlatives, from best dressed to happiest moment

Runners approach the finish line during the 2025 Boston Marathon.
Runners approach the finish line during the 2025 Boston Marathon. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here


Another spectacular Marathon Monday is in the books. Read our full recap here of the (particularly fast) results and scenes along the course.

Now, let's hand out another round of superlatives for the day's best moments:

Best recovery: John Korir's race began with a starting line fall. But it ended in glory. The 28-year-old Kenyan won the elite men's division with a time of 2:04:45, the second-fastest time in Boston Marathon history. Korir is the younger brother of 2012 Boston Marathon winner Wesley Korir, who was waiting for him at the finish line.

  • Fun fact (via the Associated Press): Although the Boston Marathon has been won by a pair of unrelated John Kelleys and two different Robert Cheruiyots, the Korirs are the first brothers — or relatives of any kind — to win the race.

Best rematch: Sharon Lokedi won the elite women's division, pulling away from two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri in the final mile after Kenmore Square. It was a reversal from last year's results, in which Obiri held off Lokedi, a fellow Kenyan and friend. Lokedi's time, 2:17:22, also smashed the Boston Marathon women's course record by more than 2 and a half minutes. (Obiri's finish 19 seconds later would have set a record, too.) When asked after the race if she was ever worried they were running too fast, Lokedi replied, "Yes. Yes, all the time."

  • Fun fact: Setting a new course record earned Lokedi a $50,000 bonus, on top of the $150,000 she won for being first in her division.

Happiest moment: Lokedi running into her mom's arms at the finish line.

Most exciting finish: The race for second in the elite men's division came down to a near-photo finish that almost distracted from Korir's victory. Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu ultimately edged out Kenya’s Cyprian Kotut for silver.

Most familiar face: Surprise! Marcel Hug cruised to victory yet again, beating the second-place finisher in the men's wheelchair division by more than four minutes. It was Hug's eighth Boston Marathon win. He's now just two behind fellow wheelchair winner Ernst Van Dyk for the all-time wins record.

Fastest Americans: Conner Mantz and Jess McClain. While he didn't make the podium, Mantz's fourth-place 2:05:08 finish was just 10 seconds behind the record for an American in the Boston Marathon. Meanwhile, McClain was the seventh woman overall, with a time of 2:22:43 — a full three minutes faster than her personal best.

Best comeback: American wheelchair racer Susannah Scaroni — who won the 2023 women's race but couldn't defend her title last year due to injury — reclaimed victory with a time of 1:35:20, two minutes ahead of the next finisher.

Best capstone: Des Linden, who announced just hours before the race it would be her last professional marathon, finished her 12th Boston in 17th place overall, with a time of 2:26:19 (technically faster than her rain-soaked 2018 win). You can watch her emotional finish and post-race interview here.

Best dressed: New Hampshire's Yuki Corney, who went full Marathon unicorn.

Most likely to be mistaken for a celebrity: Tie, between this Larry Bird impersonator and Carrie Bradshaw (not that one), a Houston native who is reportedly the first person with a double hip replacement to run Boston.

Best signs: Like always, the competition in this field is tough. (Click here for our full roundup of creative signs.) So, we broke it down into subcategories:

Unsung hero: The weather.

Boston Marathon runners after crossing the finish line. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Boston Marathon runners after crossing the finish line. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In other local news:

Meanwhile in Dedham: With 18 jurors finally selected, opening statements begin today in the retrial of Karen Read. The Mansfield woman is back in court on charges that she allegedly murdered Boston Police officer John O'Keefe, after last year's trial ended in a hung jury. If you need a refresher, read our guide to the retrial.

The latest: MBTA police have released images of the suspect of Sunday afternoon's shooting inside Harvard station. Officials say the man fled the station after firing four to five rounds at a “targeted individual," though it appears no one was injured.

P.S.— To mark Earth Day, we're kicking off our annual climate change series with fellow New England public media stations. This year's series looks at how climate change is challenging the flora and fauna that have long made this region home. Up first: invasive sea squirts.

Related:

Headshot of Nik DeCosta-Klipa
Nik DeCosta-Klipa Senior Editor, Newsletters

Nik DeCosta-Klipa is a senior editor for newsletters at WBUR.

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