BOSTON — Sharon Lokedi broke the Boston Marathon course record, and fellow Kenyan John Korir joined his brother as a race champion on Monday as the city celebrated the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War.
Lokedi outran two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri over the final mile a year after losing a sprint down Boylston Street to her in one of the closest finishes in race history. Lokedi finished in an unofficial 2 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds — 19 seconds ahead of Obiri and more than 2 1/2 minutes faster than the previous Boston best.
Six months after winning Chicago, Korir finished in 2:04:45 — the second-fastest winning time in race history as the runners took advantage of perfect marathon weather to conquer the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston’s Copley Square.
After crossing the line, Korir was greeted by his older brother, 2012 Boston winner Wesley Korir. Although the race has been won by a pair of unrelated John Kelleys and two different Robert Cheruiyots, the Korirs are the first brothers — or relatives of any kind — to win the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon.
Conner Mantz of Provo, Utah, finished fourth after losing a three-way sprint to the finish with Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania and Cybrian Kotut of Kenya. Simbu was second and Kotut was third.
Korir ran without his bib showing, pulling it out of his running tights as he sprinted down Boylston Street.
Reenactors on horseback, accompanied by a fife and drum playing ‘’Yankee Doodle,‘’ helped start the festivities and add a bit of levity when Paul Revere’s horse was spooked by the finish line decal on the street and stopped. The actor portraying the colonial silversmith and patriot had to hop off and walk the last few steps himself as the small early crowd laughed and clapped.
After reading a proclamation, Revere gently tugged the horse the rest of the way before riding off to more ceremonies commemorating the midnight ride on April 19, 1775, that warned the colonists in Lexington and Concord that the British were on the march.
