(Getty Images/TREVOR JOHNSTON/Eye Meets World Photography)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Runners were in for a chilly and wet running of the 122nd Boston Marathon Monday morning--one that WBZ-TV meteorologist Barry Burbank said might be the wettest marathon on record.
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"There's no way we can avoid this wall of water coming our way, and it looks like it's going to be raining most of the time the race is going on, most of the day," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Art Cohen. "I don't recall any other marathon in which it's been raining all day long like this. We've had other rain events, just passing showers, but this is going to be a 1-2 inch rain storm tomorrow."
The heaviest rain is expected during the afternoon. The elite runners should be finished by then, but their run will likely be impacted by passing showers.
"There may actually be some thunder and lightning thrown in there by mid-to-late afternoon," Burbank said.
And it will be cold. Temperatures will start in the mid-thirties in Hopkinton, where and when the race starts. They are expected to hover in the mid-50s in the Boston area for the rest of the day.
The runners will also be running into the wind.
"That wind is going to be mainly a headwind through the morning and early afternoon, and more of a cross-current wind as we get into the afternoon," Burbank said.
But runners were not deterred.
"It's kind of like my weather in Washington state, so I'm not too worried about it," one runner from the Pacific Northwest told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal on Sunday. "We run in rain all the time, so this is par for the course."
Another said he had a special trick for getting through the race semi-dry.
"I'm gonna wear this jacket, and I'm gonna wear this hat, which is a throwaway hat, in case I warm up," he said. "I'm gonna put a shower cap over the hat, that's my hidden secret. I'm hoping that will stop the hat from soaking up the water and getting cold."
But others just wanted to get through it.
"I'm not really looking forward to the conditions, but hopefully, three hours and 45, 50 minutes it'll all be over, one way or another," said one man running his fifth marathon.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports