It wasn't the finish Sean Lehmann envisioned. The Carson City runner did make it to the finish line at the 109th Boston Marathon on Monday, and he was glad to have had the chance to experience the event.
"It was an incredible experience," Lehmann said after finishing the race in a time of 3 hours, 38 minutes and 34 seconds. "It was very emotional, like a religious experience, I guess you could say. I'm glad I did it."
He just wished it hadn't taken so long to run the 26.2-mile distance on a 70-degree day.
"It was a little too warm," said Lehmann, whose marathon best is 3 hours, 2 minutes. "It wasn't brutal hot, but it was tough being out there 26 miles in the sun and I had a hard time handling the humidity. I was hoping to go under 3 hours, but when I got on the bus after the race, I heard pretty much the same thing from a lot of other people - we all went from wanting to run p.r.s, to wanting to qualify for Boston again, to just wanting to finish.
"I was right where I wanted to be for half the race, but it was a tougher course than I expected. I thought it would be easy coming down from altitude, but those hills are tough."
Lehmann passed his first 10 kilometers in 41:57 and passed the midway mark of the race in 1:33:03. He crossed the finish 4,732nd overall.
John Ostezan, 41, of Washoe Valley cracked the top 1,000 on the overall list as he ran 3:06:55. Other local finishers included Linda Biaggi, 45, of Minden, who ran 4:02:45 and Susan Thoma, 49, from Incline Village, who ran 4:10:46.