By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly:all rights reserved, used with permission.
BOSTON (April 17) — For the nearly 30,000 athletes who will run the 130th Boston Marathon, presented by Bank of America, on Monday, completing the event. race will be one of the most important achievements of their lives and will create vivid memories that will last a lifetime.
But for Australia’s Lisa Weightman, a four-time Olympic marathoner who will compete in the professional women’s division, crossing the finish line will be truly historic. The 47-year-old will become the first athlete to complete all seven commercial Abbott World Marathon Majors, plus the marathons held at the world’s three major athletics championships: the Olympics, the World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games. What’s more, he’ll do this while competing in the elite fields of all commercial events and maintaining a full career outside of athletics (he’s an executive manager at a major bank).
Two other women, Dina Castor of the United States and Adriana Aparecida Da Silva of Brazil, have competed in all seven commercial Majors, as well as the Olympics and the World Athletics Championships marathons, although Da Silva ran Sydney in 2024 before it became part of the Majors, and Castor did Tokyo and Sydney more than a decade later.
Weightman, who joined her husband Lachlan MacArthur and son Peter in Boston, had hoped to run here much sooner, but with such a busy life, things didn’t work out for her until this year. He is in his 17th season as an elite marathoner, having started with the 2008 London Marathon.
“I had the opportunity to have a breakout year (2013) and then I didn’t take the offer,” Waitman said. Race Results: Weekly in an exclusive interview today. “I ran home (Osaka, Japan) because the journey was a little easier for us from Australia. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to run. That is the most remarkable. Everyone at home says that when you run Boston, it’s like a party.
Running the commercial marathons of the Majors is important for athletes who want to maximize their earnings from the race, especially those who also hope to run in major championships, where they have the privilege of wearing their country’s colors but usually do not earn prize money and never receive appearance fees. Weightman has always valued being in national teams and has represented Australia eight times in international marathons and championships. He is a double Commonwealth Games marathon medalist (bronze in 2010 and silver in 2018); ran in Olympic marathons in Beijing 2008 (33rd), London 2012 (16th), Rio de Janeiro 2016 (31st), Tokyo/Sapporo 2021 (26th); and competed in the World Athletics Championships marathons in 2009 (17th) and 2023 (16th). He also qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics in a personal best of 2:23:15 aged 44, but was not selected by Athletics Australia, which is still stinging.
While he finished in Berlin (2022 and 2024), Chicago (2017 and 2019), London (2008 and 2017), New York (2018), Sydney (2025) and Tokyo (2023), Waitman often thought about competing in Boston. Yet getting here kept slipping from his grasp.
“We’ve talked about it often,” said Weightman, who is reported by Derek Froude of Posso Sports. “We thought about coming last year as well, but we didn’t get an offer last year. So, getting an offer this year is definitely a no-brainer. Like, we’re there.”
Whiteman has run three marathons in 2025, most recently in Hangzhou, China, in November, where he ran 2:31:57. He said he had plenty of time to recover and train for Boston after overcoming a hamstring injury.
“I spent most of last year injured,” Weightman admitted. “At the end of 2024 I tore my hamstring race in China. I finished because I really wanted to finish and experience the event, but it took me a long time to recover from that and then I injured it again at the beginning of last year.”
Weightman ran the Sydney Marathon last August and finished ninth in 2:29:34. It was the inaugural edition of the event as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and Weightman didn’t want to miss the opportunity to run a major on home soil (he and his family live in suburban Melbourne).
“I really wanted a chance to run Sydney and experience the hills,” he said. “You never want to pass up an opportunity to run a world major in your home country. I was really proud of that performance.”
Like here in Boston, Sydney’s course is hilly. After running it race he was more determined than ever to get here.
“I loved going down at the end of Sydney,” Weightman said. “Boston is so historic with its ups and downs. Anything can happen on a trip like Boston. Of course, there’s a little fire in me wanting to be here and the chance to win the Six Star Medal (which is awarded to runners who have completed the five original majors, plus Tokyo, which was added in 2013 and will be an emotional opportunity).
Forecasters are calling for cold conditions on Monday, with wake temperatures just above freezing and WNW winds of 12 mph (19 km/h). The weightlifter is not worried about the cold.
“I think I’m really ready for any conditions,” said the 1:08:48 half marathoner. “I benefited when I qualified for the Paris (Olympics) in Osaka in 2023 and 2024, the conditions were like 5 degrees (Celsius) and the conditions were cold and wet. Some athletes got hypothermia (in 2024) and I ran really hard and got on the podium that year.
Weightman has little to prove here in Boston. She is the oldest athlete in the professional field, one of seven women in the pro division who are at least 40 years old, and doesn’t have the speed to run with the leading pack (those women are likely to be aiming for a 2:20 finish time). Still, he hopes to be as competitive as possible. With decades of experience, he’ll have wisdom on his side, even if he’s new to Boston.
“To think that now I’m 47 years old and having the opportunity to compete in the Boston Marathon as a professional is pretty surreal and amazing,” Weightman marveled. He continued. “I guess I just want to run hard. It’s hard to know when you can run a course like this, and since it’s my first time here, I don’t have any historical data to draw on. But I think I’m just running strong, feeling strong this last stretch. Everyone who has driven it at any level says the same.
– – – – – – – –
Kenyan Geoffrey Muthai’s Boston Marathon record of 2:03:02, set in 2011, is the oldest at the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and it’s remarkable that it hasn’t been broken, especially since the dawn of the supershoe era in 2016. Although today, athletes and coaches could set records with that temperature. tailwind, athletes just aren’t focused on it.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Italian trainer Claudio Berardelli, who trains Kenyan Benson Kipruto, who won here in 2021 when race occurred in October due to the COVID epidemic. “We just race“.
– – – – – –
TOMORROW’S RESULTS WEEKLY sponsored by RunCzech, organizers of the Prague Marathon and a number of iconic running events, including the Prague Half Marathon, part of the SuperHalfs and Italy’s fastest half marathon, the Napoli City Half Marathon. Learn more here runczech.com:.
