Around 8:50 a.m. Monday, Maickel Melamed crossed the Boston Marathon starting line in Hopkinton, one of approximately 30,000 athletes beginning the 26.2 mile journey on a wet, miserable day.
Shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday, more than 20 hours after his departure, Melamed made his way down Boylston Street in a downpour and became the race's final finisher.
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"I'm so late," Melamed told reporters after he reached the end.
Melamed, a 39-year-old motivational speaker, was born with a form of muscular dystrophy that makes it difficult for him to walk, but Boston was the fifth marathon he has completed. The Venezuelan said it will also be his last, but finishing Boston was particularly special to him because his parents brought him to the city for medical treatment as a child.
Supporters accompanied Melamed throughout his journey and he was met by cheering crowds at the finish line in the predawn darkness. A look at Melamed's athlete page on the Boston Athletic Association website provides some insight into his agonizingly slow progress.
It took Melamed one hour, 39 minutes to complete the first five kilometers — a distance covered in less than 15 minutes by the elite runners who would finish at the front of the pack. Race winner Lelisa Desisa finished in 2:09:17, a time that saw Melamed in his second 5K. The last tracking entry for Melamed was his 15K split, five hours and 13 minutes. He still had about 16 miles to go at that point, and would walk haltingly through overnight thunderstorms to go the distance.
"The wind, the rain, the distance, the cold — I mean, everything today was overcome," Melamed said.