Daryl Fauth returned to Hailey Tuesday with a sun-baked face, a Boston Red Sox cap on his head and a feeling of satisfaction at having finished the 112th Boston Marathon.
He and Hailey's Brad Mitchell were the only two Wood River Valley runners—two of 71 runners from Idaho—who completed this year's Boston Marathon on a sunny New England Patriots Day. The ideal weather was windless, temperatures in the upper 50s.
Fauth, 38, was one of 21,963 runners who finished Monday's 26.2-mile marathon from Hopkinton, Mass., to downtown Boston. Running his first-ever Boston, sixth-wave runner Fauth placed 3,340th and 1,966th in his division at 3.15:27, a pace of 7:28 per mile.
Mitchell, 38, a first-wave entrant, came across the Prudential Center finish in a heady 2.40:11, good for 174th overall and 140th in his 35-39 age class. Mitchell sped along at a 6:07 per mile pace and was timed at 1.20:00 at the halfway point.
It was Mitchell's third consecutive Boston Marathon finish, and his best BAA time by exactly five minutes over last year's time. He credited his improvement to "a lot of training, and it was a great day for a run," said Mitchell, who has run six marathons in all.
Mitchell has a busy season ahead starting with the Bighorn 50-miler June 21 at Dayton, Wyo. He's already done two 50-kilometer races (31 miles) and has three 50-milers plus a 100k (61 miles) and a 100-miler at the end of September.
The men's and women's winners of the Boston Athletic Association race were Robert Cheruiyot, 29, of Kenya, in 2.07:46 and Dire Tune, 22, of Ethiopia, in 2.25:25. Each won first-place $150,000 prizes, the largest guaranteed top prizes (not dependent on time bonuses) ever paid in a marathon.
It was Cheruiyot's fourth Boston win, the most for any Kenyan runner. He won by a quarter mile, by 1:18, in the sixth-fastest Boston Marathon winning time. In the women's race, Tune nipped 25-year-old Russian Alevtina Biktimirova by two seconds, the closest women's BAA finish ever.
Among the Idaho finishers was 65-year-old Boise businessman Walt Minnick (4.45:35), who is a 2008 Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from the Gem State's 1st District.
