Tallahassee athletes in the 2023 Boston Marathon

You can be a very good marathoner while not being a very good Boston Marathoner.


My favorite marathon runner of the 1930s, Pat Dengis, is an example. Dengis won three AAU National Championship Marathons and the Pan American Marathon, but never took laurels at Boston. Maybe Dengis was unlucky. Or maybe Boston's unique collection of hills, turns, potholes, and contrary weather didn't suit the style of that Baltimore athlete.


We may have seen that play out again at the 2023 Boston Marathon. After the press and fans spent the days and weeks leading up to the race talking about a certain Very Good Marathoner, on Patriot's Day it was a very good Boston Marathoner who prevailed--defending champ Evans Chebet of Kenya. Chebet made it two in a row, throwing down a winning 2:05:54, almost a minute faster than his 2022 mark. On the women's side, Kenyan Hellen Obiri proved to be the best Boston Marathoner, running 2:21:38.


More than a few Tallahassee athletes made the trip to Massachusetts to do the annual run from Hopkinton to Boston. It is, after all, the only way to learn how good a Boston Marathoner you are. Of those Capital City athletes, the fastest was master runner Charlie Johnson, who posted a 2:49:57 and placed 1,777th. Master runner Amy Hines led the women in the Tallahassee contingent, running 3:11:03--good for 6,645th overall and 792nd in the women's standings.


In all, 21 Tallahasseeans finished the 2023 Boston Marathon, up from 16 in 2022. Here are those 2023 finishers:

Tallahassee finishers in the 2023 Boston Marathon, 17 April 2023
Place	Time	Athlete	sex	age	M/F Place	Div Place
1777	2:49:57	Charlie Johnson	M	43	1698	211
2755	2:55:15	Mickey Moore	M	53	2620	68
5283	3:05:10	Jason Graham	M	43	4829	935
5962	3:08:06	Raymond Reavis	M	42	5355	1066
6645	3:11:03	Amy Hines	F	42	792	105
7769	3:15:09	Michael Niezgoda	M	34	6592	3571
10380	3:24:06	Jack McDermott	M	54	8077	896
11499	3:27:41	Carrie Murphy	F	51	2853	71
11729	3:28:21	Deanna McVay	F	40	2972	484
12034	3:29:18	Gabriella Passidomo	F	31	3145	2207
12213	3:29:53	Melanie Leitman	F	39	3240	2258
12238	3:29:57	Jillian Heddaeus	F	40	3257	544
13337	3:34:03	Fanxiu Zhu	M	54	9423	1206
15250	3:41:20	Alison Thumm	F	45	5049	669
17867	3:52:29	Mary Fran Rowe	F	42	6565	567
18181	3:54:07	Thomas Murphy	M	53	11408	1507
19655	4:02:23	Judy Alexander	F	61	7588	157
20073	4:05:30	Birgit Maier-Katkin	F	60	7839	185
20312	4:07:25	Tsige Tadesse	F	55	7972	455
21746	4:19:15	Felton Wright	M	65	12963	381
25699	5:23:56	Nancy Peters	F	64	10908	501

Links

• Tallahassee finishers at the 2023 Boston Marathon (spreadsheet)
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQIFdnbuaaBKD9p73045RFmr8mQxbpRreU5jZGoh_K-Lpp5rpGkNLCPbC0nSV31AqYB8vDPeDFYpdfQ/pubhtml
  
  
• “Tallahassee's top finishers at the Boston Marathon during the 21st century (2000-2018)”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2022/04/baa-marathon-2022.html
  
  
• 2022 story, “Tallahassee athletes in the 2022 Boston Marathon”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/04/baa-marathon-2016.html
  
  
• 2016 story, “2016 Boston Marathon finishers from the Trouble Afoot! region”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/04/baa-marathon-2016.html
  
  
• 2015 story, “The athletes of Apalachee at the 2015 Boston Marathon”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/04/baa-marathon-2015.html
  
  
• 2013 story, “Tallahassee runs for Boston”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-strong-2013.html
  
  
• 2010 story, “The pilgrimage from Hopkinton”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/04/pilgrimage-from-hopkinton.html
  
  
• “Kent Mills was Florida State's Marathon Man at Boston in 1960”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2020/04/kent-mills-marathon.html
  
  
• Find marathons and shorter races closer to Tallahassee on the Trouble Afoot! racing calendar
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

#2921

Tallahassee athletes in the 2022 Boston Marathon

The history of the annual Boston Marathon from 1897 to 2022 hasn't been without interruptions. The race keeps coming back, though. It came back after World War I. It came back after the 2013 bombing. It came back after a pandemic. The grand old marathon returned to Patriot's Day on 18 April 2022, and there were Tallahassee athletes on the starting line in Hopkinton, Massachusetts for the occasion None of them were challenging Evans Chebet for the win when the Kenyan ran 2:06:51, nor was any athlete from Florida's Capital City in the mix when Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir outkicked Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia for the women's title, 2:21:01 to 2:21:05. Nevertheless, they were there.


Tallahassee's first finisher in the 2022 Boston Marathon was Michael Niezgoda, who placed 2164th overall and 2045th in the men's standings with a 2:56:47. Tallahassee's first woman was Claire Berryman, who ran 3:23:02 to place 8492nd overall and 1629th in the women's division. Jon Maner was the first master runner from Tallahassee in the race, placing 6394th in 3:16:23. The Capital City's first woman master in the marathon was Samantha Fillmore, 17040th overall and 6218th in the women's standings with a 4:01:44.


The history of Tallahassee athletes in the Boston Marathon goes back to 1960, when Florida State University distance runner Kent Mills took time out from track season to run the 26.2-mile race. Mills placed 26th in the race, his second marathon, running 2:48:39. In addition to being the first Tallahassee-based athlete at Boston, Mills was probably also the first runner from Florida to finish the storied event.


No doubt more Tallahassee athletes will be tracing the path of Kent Mills in Boston on Patriots Day 2023. In the meantime, here are the Tallahassee finishers of the 2022 Boston Marathon.

Tallahassee finishers in the 2022 Boston Marathon, 18 April 2022
Place	Time	Athlete	Sex	Age Group	Net Time	Pace/Mile
2164	2:56:47	Michael Niezgoda	M	18-39	2:55:07	6:41
6394	3:16:23	Jon Maner	M	45-49	3:14:57	7:27
7180	3:21:04	Jack McDermott	M	50-54	3:17:58	7:33
8492	3:23:02	Claire Berryman	F	18-39	3:22:51	7:45
8903	3:28:26	Fanxiu Zhu	M	50-54	3:24:22	7:48
11121	3:35:48	Alyssa Terry	F	18-39	3:32:31	8:07
11887	3:37:01	Jenny Early	F	18-39	3:35:21	8:13
12414	3:37:41	Jamila Allen	F	18-39	3:37:36	8:18
15602	3:56:10	Deanna McVay	F	18-39	3:50:38	8:48
16550	3:56:55	Jillian Heddaeus	F	18-39	3:55:15	8:59
17024	3:58:33	David Plack	M	50-54	3:57:48	9:05
17040	4:01:44	Samantha Fillmore	F	45-49	3:57:53	9:05
18625	4:10:55	Judy Alexander	F	60-64	4:08:38	9:29
20525	4:33:12	Birgit Maier-Katkin	F	55-59	4:25:16	10:07
22452	4:52:17	Richard Bergstrom	M	45-49	4:49:49	11:04
23016	5:06:49	Christopher Turner	M	40-44	5:00:12	11:27

Links

• Tallahassee finishers at the 2022 Boston Marathon (spreadsheet)
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTJzkYeNWhaLlwglXeCBsUmny0beSm2Qgf4rD3jw2fq8XNg2KjPrdoohw7L6tCmC5_GSjRETRW4rZJp/pubhtml
  
  
• “Tallahassee's top finishers at the Boston Marathon during the 21st century (2000-2018)”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2018/04/baa-marathon-2018.html
  
  
• 2016 story, “2016 Boston Marathon finishers from the Trouble Afoot! region”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/04/baa-marathon-2016.html
  
  
• 2015 story, “The athletes of Apalachee at the 2015 Boston Marathon”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/04/baa-marathon-2015.html
  
  
• 2013 story, “Tallahassee runs for Boston”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-strong-2013.html
  
  
• 2010 story, “The pilgrimage from Hopkinton”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/04/pilgrimage-from-hopkinton.html
  
  
• “Kent Mills was Florida State's Marathon Man at Boston in 1960”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2020/04/kent-mills-marathon.html
  
  
• Find marathons and shorter races closer to Tallahassee on the Trouble Afoot! racing calendar
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

#2821