Greenwich Woman Finishes 5th Among Connecticut Runners At Boston Marathon

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – Greenwich’s Tara Allen, a Spanish teacher at Darien High School, finished fifth among women from Connecticut in Monday’s Boston Marathon.

Greenwich's Tara Allen, a teacher at Darien High School, was fifth among Connecticut woman at Monday's Boston Marathon.
Photo Credit: *Contributed by Tara Allen/Daily Voice File photo*

Tom Renner

04/21/2014 3:30 p.m.

Allen’s time of 3:04:28 was 228th among women in the race and 21st in 40-49 age division. She was 3,299 overall in a field of nearly 36,000 runners.

Stamford’s Geoffrey Williams was the top finisher among men from Fairfield County. He ran 2:44:53 and was the eighth Connecticut runner to cross. He was 586th overall and 459th in the 20-29-year-old division. Stamford’s Jeff Watson finished in 2:47:29, which was 765th overall and 594 in the 30-39-year-old division.

Sharon Vos of Old Greenwich finished third in the 50-59 women’s division in 3:13:58. She was 533rd among women.

Some other early finishers among Fairfield County women were Wilton's Kristin Johnson (3:21:35), Heather Knight Pech of Darien (3:22:56), Emily Merritt of New Canaan (3:28:39), Carol Clark of Westport (3:31:30), Liz Herbert of Darien (3:32:55), Melissa Cutler of New Canaan (3:33:00), Corinne Lee of Wilton (3:36:12) and Kate Denious of Wilton (3:36:37).

Ian Cadieu of Westport ran 2:55:04. Some of the other top men from Fairfield County were Jeffrey Nickell of Fairfield (3:01:09), Roger Harper of New Canaan (3:02:22), Habtom Habte of Danbury (3:06:29), Jason Martin of Westport (3:06:37), Benjamin Saunders of Darien (3:07:53), Joseph Swift of Fairfield (3:08:55), Peter Bailey of Riverside (3:09:34) and Larry Reilly of Ridgefield (3:10:19).

Meb Keflezighi became the first American in 31 years to win the race, posting a time of 2:08:37. Rita Jeptoo of Kenya won the women’s race for the second straight time in 2:18:57. American Shalane Flangan led much of the way before fading late and finished seventh in 2:22:02, a personal best.

The race featured 35,755 runners, the second-largest field in the 118-year history of the race. The centennial race in 1996 had 38,708 starters.

The race was also run amid heightened security after bombs planted by terrorists last year near the finish line killed three people. This year, security was tight throughout the course, particularly at the start and finish areas.

Runners also enjoyed mostly favorable temperatures and sunny skies, although the temperature did reach into the 60s later in the day. The temperature at the start at 10 a.m. was 42 degrees. A crowd of 1 million was expected to attend the race.

Results are online.

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