Full field returns for Boston Marathon coming-out party

BOSTON (AP) — Fans dressed as unicorns. Bands playing music. Kids jumping on trampolines.

And the loudest Wellesley scream tunnel anyone can remember.

The Boston Marathon was back to a full field and back in the spring for the first time since 2019, and fans along the course threw a comingout party for a region recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were so glad that we were able to do it,” Boston Athletic Association President Tom Grilk said Tuesday, a day after Evans Chebet and Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir broke the tape on Boylston Street. “It was Boston at its finest.”

Six months after its delayed, then canceled, then delayed again 125th edition, the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual 26.2mile race returned to its traditional Patriots’ Day spot in the schedule — and the atmosphere was back as well.

Thick crowds lined the course through the eight cities and towns from Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay.

One boy got a highfive from 2017 winner Edna Kiplagat. Other children blew bubbles and sat on their parents’ shoulders to get the best view. There was music, dancing and drummers.

One man egged on the women’s leaders by chasing them with a giant cutout of Will Smith’s head. Near the midway point at Wellesley College, the students kept up the “scream tunnel” tradition that had been muted six months ago by masks.

“It was loud out there,” Manuela Schar, who also won the smaller and socially distanced race in October, said on Tuesday. “It was a little bit louder and a little bit bigger. I needed it.”

The weekend, which coincided with the Boston Red Sox home opener, also included the regular 5K fun run and high school and professional miles, as it had been before the pandemic.