Rain chills runners at Boston Marathon start
Competitors leave the start line in the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, Mass. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Rain has started falling at the Boston Marathon starting line, and forecasters warn that it will be a soggy race for the 30,000 runners and 1 million spectators.
David Parkinson of New York City is running his sixth consecutive Boston. The 29-year-old was sheltering under a tent, sitting on trash bags and swaddled in blankets to keep warm.
In a sign of enhanced security two years after terrorist bombings killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 others, runners and others were being scanned with a metal-detecting wand at the start in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Monday’s 119th running of the Boston Marathon began with a special start for mobility-impaired participants. Push rim wheelchairs start at 9:17 a.m., and the elite women set off at 9:32 a.m. The elite men and the first of three waves of runners start at 10 a.m.
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