Whipping through Natick yesterday, Susannah Scaroni’s wheelchair was squeaking. Monday’s 127th Boston Marathon featured cold, wet conditions, and the women’s wheelchair division winner’s gloves were slipping on her wheels.
Scaroni was leading the race by about a minute when she was forced to pull over around the 15K mark. “I noticed I could hear something on my right side and then noticed that my right wheel was loose,” she said in a press conference. So she pulled out her tool kit and tightened the axle with her Allen wrench. “Shout out to carrying an Allen wrench with your spare tires!” she wrote on Instagram after the race.
“It was super disappointing when I noticed my axle coming loose,” Scaroni said. “But again, it’s better to tighten it, to pull over and make that time up … than to have your wheel rubbing or come off.”
Even with the delay, she won her first Boston title handily in 1:41:45, over a mile ahead of the second place finisher, Madison de Rozario.
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The 31-year-old Paralympic gold medalist had taken the lead early into the race, around mile four, and when she had to stop, she wasn’t sure how much of a gap she still had. Not only did she recover from the setback, but she built her lead to two minutes by the 25K mark.
“The crowds here are always incredible,” Scaroni said. “But today, there was extra spirit, especially because it was so rainy and cold, and I felt lifted honestly down Boylston Street. I try not to look behind me, and so I didn’t know if there was a group catching me or not, but the Boylston crowds were amazing.”
Scaroni notched her first win at Boston on the heels of victories at the New York City and Chicago marathons in 2022. She also won the BAA 5K Runners World 2023 Calendar.
Abby Carney is a writer and journalist in New York. A former D1 college runner and current amateur track athlete, she's written about culture and characters in running and outdoor sports for Runner's World, Like the Wind Magazine, The New York Times, and other outlets. She also writes about things that have nothing to do with running, and was previously the editor of a food magazine.
