At the 15-mile mark of the women’s race at the 120th Boston Marathon on Monday, the pack had dwindled to four women. Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia was not one of them. At 22 miles, she was 37 seconds behind.
But when the race was over, Baysa, 29, had stormed past the leaders for an unlikely victory.
Her countryman Lemi Berhanu Hayle, just 21, won the men’s race. It was the first time Ethiopians won the men’s and women’s races in the same year.
The women’s race initially followed the familiar pattern of a large pack that gradually dwindles.