BOSTON (WRCB/AP) - Mother Nature turned up the heat on the 116th running of the Boston Marathon, but it wasn't enough to stop Trish Newsom from achieving her dream.
The Soddy-Daisy resident and Rhea County school teacher was one of five local runners who braved the elements to complete the Boston Marathon.
Newsom finished her first-ever run in the marquee event in 4:35:06 on Monday afternoon.
Newsom, a 43-year-old physical education teacher at Dayton City School, was running as part of the Team Hoyt charity team. She finished two Boston qualifying marathons in less than 3:50:00, but the heat slowed her Boston pace to 10:29 per mile.
The world's oldest annual 26.2 mile run was her ninth career marathon.
"The heat was brutal, but it was an amazing day! I did it!" Newsom said in a text message later Monday afternoon.
She wasn't the only Chattanooga area runner enjoying the experience of a lifetime.
South Pittsburg's husband-wife duo of Tyler and Mary Katherine Dawkins was also in the field. Tyler finished the men's race in 3 hours, 42 minutes and 48 seconds, while Mary Katherine crossed in 5 hours, 42 minutes and 31 seconds.
Both are teachers at South Pittsburg High School.
Collegedale's Rusty McKee nearly matched Tyler's torrid pace. The 48-year-old crossed in 3 hours, 45 minutes and 49 seconds.
Meanwhile, Chattanooga's Bud Wisseman didn't let the youngsters hog the spotlight. The 72-year-old marathon veteran completed his 23rd consecutive Boston Marathon with a time of 5 hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds. His finish placed him in the top 50 in the seniors division.
Wisseman hopes to run in two more to achieve "Quarter Century" status as a participant who has qualified and run in 25 straight Boston Marathons.
Temperatures that rose into the 80s slowed the field and may have convinced as many as 4,300 runners to sit this one out. Event officials urged participants to be cautious, and offered a return invite to the 2013 race should they decide not to risk running in this year's heat.
Wesley Korir won the men's race in a heat-slowed unofficial time of 2 hours, 12 minutes, 40 seconds.
A year after Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon in history to win here, Korir won the second-slowest Boston race since 1985.
Sharon Cherop won the women's race to complete the Kenyan sweep, outsprinting fellow Kenyan Jemima Jelagat Sumgong to win in an unofficial 2 hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds.
It was the fifth consecutive year that the women's race came down to a sprint down Boylston Street.
Korir was the 19th Kenyan men's winner in 22 years.
Mutai, the defending champ, dropped out at the 30-kilometer mark due to cramping, one year after he won the race with the fastest marathon in world history. Mutai, who also won the New York Marathon in the fall, was hoping to win and earn a place on the Kenyan Olympic team.
A total of 22,426 runners started Monday's race in Hopkinton in temperatures expected to be as high as 84 by the time the last of them finish their 26.2-mile trek to Boston's Back Bay. That's about 84 percent of the registered field of almost 27,000, with many of the no-shows expected to take race organizers up on their offer for a deferment into next year's race.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Soddy-Daisy's Trish Newsom (left) joins her husband, Mike, for a picture with Dick Hoyt and his son, Rick, of Team Hoyt on the eve of the Boston Marathon on Sunday.
