The weather in the Northeast was so bad this weekend that Boston Marathon officials gave serious thought to canceling today's race entirely, but the race did begin as scheduled this morning.
A few miles in, New York Marathon champion Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia is leading the women's race. Defending champion Ernst Van Dyk is leading the men's wheelchair division and Wakako Tsuchida is leading the women's wheelchair division. The male elite runners began just minutes ago.
Many runners were clearly affected by the weather: 2,449 of the approximately 25,000 who registered did not show up for the race.
