BOSTON — Katie Efird ran her first Boston Marathon last year and loved it. Danielle Soroka had never been but wanted to try it. Maleah Pinyan, the real Boston veteran of the group thought they needed to all go and make it a girls’ trip. 

“Boston was an amazing experience, so it didn’t take much convincing for me to go back,” Efird said. “I’m 36, and I’ve been running for as long as I can remember. I homeschool our two kids and my husband also does marathons and triathlons, so we have to do a lot of planning and communicating to make sure we both get our training in. This training block did not go as expected for me. I strained my hamstring in December and couldn’t run for about 6 weeks. Then, I got sick towards the end of the block. I only got about 12 weeks of real work in, which is shorter than ideal. I also used a different approach this time using a plan from the book “Run Less Run Faster.” My mileage was much lower than I normally do. I only ran 3-4 times a week on this plan, but I also did a lot of cross-training, cycling and swimming. My peak weekly mileage was only 42 miles.”  

Meanwhile, Pinyan, who has been running since she was a high school freshman at Central Davidson, and also ran cross country at Catawba College, has just continued to run.

“I’m currently 35 years old,” Pinyan said. “I’m married to a runner, and we have two children, ages 8 and 6. We’ll be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary later this month. I struggled with some Achilles issues for most of my training. I was still able to run 50-60 miles per week in training, but it took a lot of conscious effort to manage the issue. I concentrated on recovery after hard workouts and long runs, strength training twice per week, actually stretching, and many appointments at Accelerate Therapy & Performance.” 

She added, “Katie, Danielle and I run together often. Not long after Katie ran in the 2023 Boston Marathon, Danielle and I were running together, and she mentioned that she’d like to do Boston one day. We looked up the qualifying times for her age and knew she could easily do that. I knew I had already qualified, and that Katie had qualified again, so I suggested a girls’ Boston trip and we invited other women along, too. This trip has been in the works for almost a year. I’m really looking forward to sharing this experience with such strong, hardworking, dedicated, and supportive women.”

Efird said they all flew out Saturday morning with plans to return Tuesday.

“There are 3 of us running and 8 women total,” Efird said. “Between lots of running-related events, including the expo, shake-out runs, a Mile 27 after-party, we have a packed schedule with touristy things like a Red Sox game and the Boston Tea Party Museum.”

Efird is running her second Boston Marathon, and her sixth marathon overall. She’s aiming for a 3:10-3:15. Last year’s Boston was her qualifier. Pinyan is doing her fourth Boston Marathon and her 16th marathon overall. She qualified at Myrtle Beach and just wants to finish while having fun along the way. Soroka is an avid marathoner, ultra marathoner and triathlete. She’s done 10 full marathons and an Ironman in 2022. She qualified at the Ellerbe Marathon, and this is her first time running Boston. 

Monday dawned mostly cloudy for the 128th Boston Marathon, but a slight tailwind, partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 60s were start time conditions. Pinyan led the local runners with a time of 3 hours, 17 minutes and 39 seconds. Efird was close behind at 3:20:37 while Soraka clocked 3:38:04. All three placed roughly in the top third of the 30,000 runners entered. 

All three runners agreed that the crowd support was amazing, that the warm temperatures were a challenge and it meant so much to have their friends and family cheering for us. 

Pinyan said, “It was really hot, and I just tried to run smart and stay hydrated. I wanted to be able to finish strong, so I ran conservatively. My Boston best was 3:36, so I am excited to beat that. Several people collapsed on the course. I’m proud of Katie and Danielle, they both ran so strong!”

Efird agreed, “The crowd support was hands down the best part. Around mile 16, I realized that I needed to pull back on the pace or risk overheating. The pace wasn’t what I wanted, but I’m satisfied with my time considering the conditions.” 

Soroka added, “I loved being in Boston. The people were super supportive and friendly. Many people helped and congratulated me. I had so much fun!”

Ethiopian Sisay Lemma led from the start of the 26.2 mile event and took top honors with a time of 2:06:17. Kenyan Hellen Obiri outdistanced the other women with a time of 2:22:37.