Boston Marathon winners

rutt

This is Catherine Ndereba of Kenya in the middle of "Heartbreak Hill" in Newton, about 7 miles from the finish of today's Boston Marathon. Her win today is her fourth victory in this race.



The second place woman was an Ethiopian,Alemu Elfenesh who finished just a little under 2 minutes back. When she passed me she was in the lead by maybe 20 seconds.




The top men were all together when they passed me.



The eventual winner was Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia, wearing bib number 7. To his left are Timothy Cherigat who finished sixth, down almost 3 minutes and Benson Cherono who finished third down about a minute.

Andy

very nice, rutt! tough day for a marathon, a bit hot. i only run my marathons when the temps are below 50 degrees f.

rutt

Tough for the runners and tough for the photographers. Bright midday light without a cloud in the sky. I had to shoot very close to the sun to get these.

It takes a certain amount of masochism to shoot these races. Lots of people are doing it and you really only get a few seconds to shoot the leaders and there are always issues with people getting in your way at that moment. The professional press has a huge advantage here because some of them get to ride in the car just ahead of the leaders.

Andy

rutt wrote:

....get to ride in the car just ahead of the leaders.

Baldy

Great shots, Rutt! These are the kinds of shots I love: Action. Emotion. Drama. A great moment in time. No stinkin' bird on some pretty log.

ginger_55

I like the marathon shots, too, Rutt, Baldy.

ginger (with the stinkin birds)

tmlphoto

ginger_55 wrote:

I like the marathon shots, too, Rutt, Baldy.

ginger (with the stinkin birds)

Nice set Rutt. Looks like you made the most out of your opportunities.

rutt

Baldy wrote:

Great shots, Rutt! These are the kinds of shots I love: Action. Emotion. Drama. A great moment in time. No stinkin' bird on some pretty log.

Thanks. I felt good about this. Last year I went and waited for hours and didn't get a passable shot of any of the leaders. This year, I got there about 15 minutes before the leaders came through and actually got the shots. I suppose I could have driven around a lot and gotten more than one opportunity to shoot them. But as it was I just had a few seconds to shoot each group. Maybe next year I'll try to use my bicycle to shoot more than once. But these people are running quite fast, so that would take some sweat on my part. And I think the wheelchairs are going almost 20mph, which is probably too fast for even a very good cyclist to get more than a few shoting opportunities.

Steve Cavigliano

Nice ones Rutt

It was too bad you didn't get any of the wheelchair competitors. I believe a lady from Palo Alto won again this year But, I agree that at the speeds they can get up to, it's might be a tough shoot

Anyhow, good work and thanks for sharing these,
Steve

ian408

One of the gals in the office ran Boston and said the winning female
finished better than halfway through her run. Goes to show how good
they really are.

Nice work!

Ian

rutt

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

It was too bad you didn't get any of the wheelchair competitors. I believe a lady from Palo Alto won again this year But, I agree that at the speeds they can get up to, it's might be a tough shoot

Steve

I did get some, but none of the elites. These have had no post, they are just straight out of the camera jpegs. The light was pretty harsh, so they would clearly benefit from the usual shadow/highlight and/or curves treatment.











The Boston Marathon now has a staggered start. First the elite wheelchairs, then the elite women, then the elite men, then everyone else. The idea is to keep the hoi poli out of the elite's hair and to separate them from each other.
As it happens some of the non-elite wheelchairs are so fast that they catch and pass the elite women. So that's what I think these people are: the fastest of the slow. They were passing in dribs and drabs the whole time I was there.

4labs

I love everything about the last one. you really captured the spirit of the race. Thnxs for sharing.

Steve Cavigliano

Rutt,

The WC shots are really nice. As you wrote, a few might benefit from some post processing cuz of the mixed lighting. But, for right out of the camera shots, these are super

Love #3. The look of utter determination, as if to say "I'm going to finish this race whatever it costs, or whatever toll it takes" and the clapping on-lookers make it darn near perfect for me.

Very nice
Steve