Even with so many Americans finishing atop the leaderboard in the Boston Marathon, one result popped out -- a virtual unknown to the major marathon scene finishing in second place.
Sarah Sellers was just hoping for a top-15 result, but her time of 2:44:04 was good enough for second place on a day when gusty winds and pouring rains made the usual pace of an elite finish impossible.
A full-time nurse in Arizona and a Utah native, she said afterward she was just hoping to finish in the top 15. She wound up walking away with $75,000 in prize money for her surprise podium finish, 4 minutes and 10 seconds behind winner Desiree Linden.
Not bad for what she said was just her second marathon ever.
"I'm in shock about that," she said afterward about the payday.
She didn't start Monday's race with high aspirations.
"For me, my goal was just to stay dry for the first couple of miles as I got warmed up," Sellers said.
Boy, did she ever.
A former distance runner at Weber State, according to the school she posted the highest finish ever by a Utah native running in the Boston Marathon.
Her training race was the Phoenix Half Marathon. She ran 1:14:50.
"Nothing spectacular," Sellers said.
So when she started passing some of Boston's elite runners in Monday's soggy conditions she, too, was "in complete disbelief."
As for her plans going forward, she says she's not sure.
"Training for another marathon. ... I haven't even thought beyond Boston," she said. "I'm in shock, too."
