Strong Performances By Nantucket Runners At The 2023 Boston Marathon
David Creed •
A large contingent of island residents participated in the 127th edition of the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Below are their finishing times:
🏃♀️ Bridgette Hynes: 03:31:51
🏃♀️ Heidi Mitchell: 03:31:51
🏃♂️ Scott Capizzo: 04:12:23
🏃♂️ Rob Cocuzzo: 04:14:16
🏃♀️ Kara Parhiala: 04:15:42
🏃♀️ Kaitlyn Erisman: 04:54:12
🏃♀️ Kelsey Perkins: 04:54:12
🏃♀️ Cassie Thompson: 04:54:12
🏃♀️ Kayla Gretzky: 05:18:37
Another time to note is former island resident and Current contributor Brian Bushard, who clocked in at 4:34:10.
Capizzo told the Current following the race that the long hours of training were worth it. He wanted to thank everyone that donated to his campaign, saying he couldn’t have accomplished this feat without them.
"The race was amazing and difficult," Capizzo said. "I loved being apart of such an iconic event. The crowds and runners are incredible. The most amazing part was seeing my family and crossing the finish line. I would also add that running for the End Alzheimer’s was phenomenal. My team raised over $450,000 and we were #3 of all the charities. I felt very honored to be one of the runners representing Nantucket and it was great seeing everyone accomplish their goals. I really recommend running if you want to challenge yourself and change your life for the better."
"If I can do it, anyone can."
Thompson, Erisman and Perkins ran the entire 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boylston together. The trio has been training together since they made the decision to run in October and Thompson said they have done all their long runs together as a group.
"I don't know if I could have run by myself," Thompson said with a laugh."They helped me out a lot. We always joked while training that I would take off on them the last couple of miles and leading up to this they said 'if you need to go ahead at the end you can' but I quickly said no - we started this together, I don't care about my time, we have been grinding and putting in the effort together, so we all are going to see the end result together."
Thompson said that mile 21 is when things started to get difficult. For Thompson and Erisman, this was their first marathon while Monday was the second Boston Marathon for Perkins.
Will Thompson run the Boston Marathon again?
"Right now, no," Thompson said quickly. "I may stick with half marathons and if I were to do it again I would probably go with a different one like Chicago or New York. It is crazy to say you did a marathon. The training was fun and crazy at time. It was nuts and definitely an experience."
Below are some photos taken throughout the day.
*NON-NANTUCKET RELATED MARATHON PHOTOS BELOW*
Below are some non-Nantucket related photos, including some of Emma Bates, who placed fifth at the marathon amongst women runners with the fastest time by an American woman and Eliud Kipchoge, who is widely considered to be the greatest marathon runner of all-time having secured four of the six fastest marathon times of all time. Kipchoge placed sixth amongst men in his first ever Boston Marathon. It was just the third time Kipchoge has ever lost a marathon.
