About nine hours after the final wave of the Boston Marathon began Monday, a group gathered alongside the course, now illuminated by streetlights, to celebrate the last person to finish among the roughly 29,000 competitors. The spectators shook cow bells and cheered as Janice “Rbey” Thomas sprinted past the finish line and a few feet beyond to ensure she had clocked all 26.2 miles. Then a race official placed a gold medal around her neck.
The Boston Marathon stops recording times in the late afternoon — about six hours after the last wave begins — to reopen roads, except for a small section of the street that remains cordoned off for late finishers. Top runners have no problem finishing within that time frame; the men’s and women’s winners needed only about two hours.
But the 179 runners who completed the race after the finish line closed proved that grit can be just as inspiring as speed. An Instagram video showing some of the last finishers has been viewed more than 2.5 million times, racking up more than 1,000 congratulatory comments.
Some of those competitors told The Washington Post that finishing was just as fulfilling without an official time.
For Thomas, 64, the race was one of the toughest feats of a journey that began after her daughter Jalana died in April 2024. Jalana often reminded her mom to take care of herself, Thomas said, and that advice gave Thomas purpose while grieving: She took up running.
Thomas said finishing her first marathon was the happiest she had felt since Jalana died at 29 years old.
“I felt so good,” Thomas said through tears. “I know my daughter’s happy. I knew she would want that for me.”
Before Monday, Shaanon Cabral last ran the Boston Marathon in 2016, when she crossed the finish line in five hours and 20 minutes. She held hands with her son Harrison, who, at 8 years old, hopped the barricade near the final stretch to be with his mom.
“I vowed that that was going to be the last marathon that I would run,” Cabral said, “because how does it get better than that?”
However, Cabral said, she would consider running the marathon again if one of her four children wanted to compete with her. That became a real option when her daughter Hallé Cabral began running marathons in 2024 and planned to compete in Boston this month.
Shaanon, 51, resumed marathon training in the same white sneakers her daughter wore but had to stop last month due to patellofemoral pain syndrome, an overuse injury in her right knee. Still, she placed black tape and a brace over her knee to run Monday.
While most Boston Marathon runners have to meet qualifying times, some compete by raising money for charities and nonprofits. The Cabrals ran for the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, a Boston community center named after the late Boston Celtics player.
About 10 miles into Monday’s race, Shaanon said she felt a sharp pain in her knee, which she described as the worst discomfort she has ever endured. But she was determined to finish the race holding hands with Hallé, 25, even if she had to crawl.
“If I had dropped off of the race and not finished, the pain in my heart would exceed any physical pain that that Marathon brought me,” Shaanon, a photographer from South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, wrote in a text message to The Washington Post.
After more than six hours of running, Shaanon limped across the finish beside her daughter. Shaanon and Hallé placed medals around each other’s necks. Then, Shaanon said, she fell into Hallé’s arms and cried.
Another runner suggested that Shaanon could run with her grandchildren one day. Shaanon said that’s unlikely, but she’ll cheer for Hallé to earn an official time next year.
Siobhan Salani often tells her first-grade students at a Catholic school in Massachusetts that they can do hard things. She gave herself that same advice Monday.
Salani competed after raising more than $12,000 for the Corey C. Griffin Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to give children equal access to education, health and mentorship resources. Salani, 26, said she has been dealing with a lower-back injury for the past two months. She told her doctor that she would complete physical therapy but that she would still run the marathon.
When a parent asked if Salani could compete with the injury, the teacher recalled, a student replied: “Ms. Salani’s brave, and she’s strong, and she can do hard things. She’s going to be fine.”
Her students were expecting her to show up at school with the medal, Salani said, “so I kept thinking: ‘I need to just finish. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.’”
Salani said she ran the first half of the marathon before her injury flared up, then she ran and walked the rest. A few of her friends walked behind her during the final stretch, holding posters of her face, as she finished after more than seven hours and embraced her family members.
Her school is on break, but Salani said she’s excited to show off her medal when students return Monday.
While Salani was crossing the finish line, Thomas was still running and walking the course. Thomas competed through a Boston Athletic Association program that offers new runners a chance to complete a 5-kilometer race, a 10-kilometer race, a half-marathon and a marathon within a year.
Near the end of the course, Thomas said she developed a right leg cramp but prayed that she would finish. She said she thought about Jalana’s words, such as, “Take care of yourself, mommy,” and the way she yelled “Hooray, mommy!” when Thomas accomplished a goal.
After finishing, Thomas hugged her family members and friends. Now she’s resting, but she already has begun thinking about her next race.
“I’m going to keep going,” Thomas said. “And that’s what she would want for me.”
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