In perfect weather, 117th Boston Marathon begins

BOSTON (AP) a The men are down at the Boston Marathon. Protecting champ Wesley Korir was the type of making Hopkinton at 10 a.m. Just behind the elite men was the remaining of a subject of 27,000 on its way for the 26.2-mile trek to Boston's Back Bay. Americans Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher left about half an hour early in the day, hoping function as the first U.S. Champion at the world's oldest annual marathon since 1985. The temperature was 48 degrees at the focus on several clouds in the sky, ideal situations for the 117th running of the battle. That's a great deal different than this past year, when temperatures spiked toward 90 and an unprecedented deferment was offered by organizers to the 2013 race. Race morning got started with 26 seconds of silence in honor of the subjects of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. A tad bit more than 2 hours later, the lead runners will go past the Mile 26 gun, that has been adorned with the Newtown, Conn., seal and dedicated to the memory of those killed there. The 53 wheelchair competitors left Hopkinton at 9:17 a.m., followed 15 minutes later by the 51 elite women. The men were under way at 10 a.m., accompanied by three waves that within the next 40 minutes would deliver the whole area of 27,000 on its way to Copley Square. Several four women broke away early, with Goucher and Flanagan in the package about 50 yards behind because they passed from Ashland into Framingham around Mile 4. Last springs race came under the best experienced conditions on record. About 2,300 organizers were taken by runners on the present to run this season instead and stay that one out. For waiting per year, they got excellent running weather: Temperatures expected to rise to the mid-50s with very little of a wind nearby the Back Bay finish line. "We got a race director Dave McGillivray said this week. "And that's good, because we are in need of in 2013 to regroup." Protecting winners Wesley Korir and Sharon Cherop were straight back, wanting to keep on a quarter-century of Kenyan importance in the competition. Flanagan, of nearby Marblehead, is competing to function as the first U.S. winner since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach won in 1985; no American man has won since Greg Meyer in 1983. Jason Hartmann, who was fourth this past year, may be the leading American competitor on the men's side after Olympians Meb Keflezighi and Ryan Hall withdrew as a result of injuries. Etc Follow Jimmy Golen on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen

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