‘You can’t stop us’: Runners, fans celebrate the 127th Boston Marathon
BOSTON (WLNE) — Roughly 30,000 runners will trek from Hopkinton to Boylston Street Monday, marking the 127th running of the Boston Marathon.
The longest standing marathon in the country began with shuttles taking the runners from the Boston Commons to the starting line in Hopkinton. Friends, family, and loved ones saw the runners off before the 26.2-mile race.
“I’m feeling more nervous than him,” said Dee Rzewnicki, mother of a runner and former participant in the marathon two years before the bombings. “First of all, you picked the wrong event…but you picked the wrong people. I can see that with Boston. For my son to come and now do this, it makes it that much more special.”
Hundreds gathered early Monday morning at the finish line — an annual tradition for Brighton’s James Barnes. In 2013, he said he missed the bombings by minutes.
“We got home, and we heard the news,” Barnes explained. “I was just like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?'”
Back in the same spot 10 years later, Barnes had a tearful message to runners and New Englanders.
He finished, “I’m so proud of the people who are still alive, and I am happy to stay for all the runners finishing up. Show what you got, prove it to them!”
