5 of the Worst Weather Days in Boston Marathon History

Drenching rain, high winds, and temperatures in the upper 30s made for apocalyptically atrocious running conditions. More than half of the professional fields dropped out. Des Linden and Yuki Kawauchi survived the best. Linden’s winning time was the slowest in the women’s race since 1978, Kawauchi’s the slowest on the men’s side since 1976 (see below).

The recorded temperature on the course peaked at 89 degrees during the hottest Boston in many years. The men’s and women’s winning times were both nine minutes slower than the year before, when the race was held on a cool day with a prevailing headwind.

[Run Your Best Spring Race—No Matter What Mother Nature Throws at You]

Drop-outs and visits to the medical tents spiked along with the temperature. Medical workers could have been even busier—on race weekend, runners were offered the option of deferring their entry to the following year. More than 4,000 entrants did so.

A Nor’easter blew through Boston the night before and prompted rumors that the race would be canceled. Heavy winds and driving rain peaked early on race morning.

[How to Run a Marathon in the Wind]

Conditions improved after that, but still, this was far from a day for PRs (or spectating, for that matter). Lidiya Grigoryeva’s winning time of 2:29:18 was the slowest since 1985. Men’s winner Robert Cheruiyot ran 2:14:13, the slowest men’s winning time since 1976 and almost seven minutes slower than the course record he set the previous year.

Make it hotter than in 2012 and cover the course when there aren’t aid stations every mile, and you’ll get a taste of the 1976 race. At its peak, the temperature topped out at 100. More than 40 percent of the 1,900-runner field dropped out of what became known as the “run for the hoses,” so called because of residents along the route offering impromptu water stops.

Jack Fultz (seen here) won the men’s race in 2:20:19, probably the last time any man will win Boston with a 2:20 or slower. Two years later, on a more amenable day, Fultz finished fourth in 2:11:17.

Wait, what does the weather have to do with this iconic image?

As you probably know, in 1967 Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to finish Boston as an official entrant. Race official Jock Semple tried—unsuccessfully—to remove Switzer from the course once he realized that the “K” in the name of entrant “K.V. Switzer” stood for Kathrine.

Race-day weather included sleet and wind. To stay warm and dry, Switzer wore a hooded sweatshirt, a sartorial choice that also happened to help conceal her gender when her number was checked by cold, distracted race officials. The raw weather may have hampered that day’s marathoners, but it also may have contributed to a seminal moment in women’s running.