COURTESY PHOTO: KAREN DILISIO
Karen Dilisio gives a thumbs up at the starting line of the Boston Marathon.
BY STEVE KRAUSE
BOSTON — Weather, or, more specifically, weather variables, proved to be the No. 1 story in this year’s Boston Marathon.
Whether it was the heat of the first 13 miles to the sudden temperature shift as the runners approached Boston to the headwind that accompanied the sea breeze, conditions made it a brutal race, local runners said Monday.
“A lot of people didn’t finish,” said Lynn’s Karen Dilisio, who did, in 4 hours, 57 minutes. “A lot of people were cramping, and there were a lot of runners who had to pull over to the side of the road.
“It was a warm start and a cold finish,” she said.
Dilisio was running her sixth race and is already eagerly anticipating No. 7.
Lynn Jets hockey coach Joe Conlon was running in his first, and all he wanted to do was finish, which he did in 4:11.
“It was fun,” he said, “but that’s mainly because of all my family was there to support me.”
He needed it too, he said, especially after he hit the famed Heartbreak Hill in Newton.
“I cramped up on the hills,” he said. “I underestimated them a little bit and the beat me up. I staggered home after that.”
However, he said, the familiarity of the landscape from Boston College to the finish line, coupled with the crowds, spurred him on.
“Once you hit that point,” he said, “you can’t stop. But the cramps were really bad.”
If the heat and wind combined to make the course tougher than usual, the crowds more than made up for it, Dilisio said.
“They were insane,” she said. “I have to tip my hat to them. They really pushed me, and a lot of other runners too.”
Lynn plumber Steve Creamer, on the other hand, felt he had a good race.
“I felt strong until Heartbreak Hill,” he said, “just like 90 percent of the other people who ran. But the hills did me in, again.
“After 18-19 miles, your legs are feeling good,” he said. “You go up those three hills and you don’t feel so good afterward.”
Hazel Boyd and Pam Merkel of Lynn both ran, and both finished, though not together. Boyd finished first, but had some injury issues she said were caused by the heat.
“Let’s say it was a good mental race for me,” she said. “It may have been a gorgeous day for spectators, but it was hard for the runners.
“I visited the medical tent twice,” she said. “Hamstrings, calves, my foot, ankles…”
Despite all that, she said, “I’m already signed up for next year.”
As is Merkel, who was running to support the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
“Typical for Boston,” she said, “I feel tired, but I’m also emotional.”
She was not particularly enamored with the sudden change in temperature that occurred when runners hit the afternoon sea breeze.
“But,” she said, “I just kept going. I didn’t have cramps, but the heat took a lot out of me.”
Nahant’s Ellen Goldberg, who completed the course in 5:14, got a sunburn for her troubles. She, too, found the weather difficult to deal with.
“The wind makes the heat a little deceiving,” she said. “People get into the wind and they misjudge how how warm it really is.”
Also, she said, those who aren’t familiar with the course, which is downhill for about the first five miles, can be lulled into running at too fast a pace.
“You have to be mindful of that,” she said. “That can trash your legs and you can’t recover.”
Lynn native Sheree Dunwell, who now lives in Beverly, finished in 5:22, and echoed the rest of the runners when it came to the weather variables.
“The sea breeze came at you all of a sudden,” she said. “It seems to hit the minute you come to the most difficult part of the course. It was bad news from there.”
Dunwell, running for the Mass. Mentoring Partnership, which is the umbrella organization for Girls Inc., said marathon No. 6 will be her last one for a while.
“I have told pretty much everyone in my life that this was going to be my last one for a while,” she said. “It’s best to take a break. It gets tougher and tougher to ask people for money. I think I’m going to take a couple of years off.”
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected]