Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma wins Boston Marathon in runaway. Kenya's Hellen Obiri repeats in women's race

After running alone for most of the morning, Lemma held on down Boylston Street to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds -- the 10th fastest time in the race's 128-year history.

Lemma, the 2021 London champion, arrived in Boston with the fastest time in the field -- just the fourth person ever to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year.

Lemma ran the first half in 1:00:19 -- 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's course record pace in 2011, when he finished in 2:03:02 -- the fastest marathon in history to that point.

On a day when sunshine and temperatures rising into the mid-60s left the runners reaching for water -- to drink, and to dump over their heads -- Obiri ran with an unusually large lead pack of 15 through Brookline before breaking away in the final few miles.

Hug already had a four-minute lead about 18 miles in when reached the landmark firehouse turn in Newton, where the course heads onto Commonwealth Avenue on its way to Heartbreak Hill.

The otherwise sleepy New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversary as the starting line for the world's oldest and most prestigious marathon, sending off a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners on its way.