Running in her first Boston Marathon on Monday, BJ (Conner) Roberts of Double Oak, a 1996 graduate of Abilene Christian University, finished in a time of 3:28:56. One of 26,735 entrants, she placed 895th in her age/gender group of 5,942, 1,157th among the 11,317 women and 6,564th overall among runners in the 26.2-mile race run for the 114th time through the streets of Beantown. Her bib number of 12,839 was how she ranked in qualifying times, but she placed 6,564th to beat about half the people with better qualifying times.
“I feel really relieved, surprised, humbled and thankful to have been able to participate among these amazing runners. It was a truly amazing experience,” said Roberts, who took up running in 2008, and ran her first marathon ever in April 2009 in Dallas.
Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia won the women’s title in 2:26:11, and Kenya’s Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the men’s title in 2:05:52, the latter 82 seconds better than the previous best set in 2006 by another Kenyan, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (who is not related).
If you know of other ACU alumni, students or faculty/staff who competed in the 114th Boston Marathon, let us know and we’ll share the news here.