Boston Marathon
“The weather was always somewhere between a steady rain and a deluge, in the low 40s and windy,” says Snelson. “Weather is one of those things you can’t control. My coach said to stay with packs of runners and dress for the winter.”
Snelson persevered and ran her best marathon time — two hours, 49 minutes, 50 seconds — to place 14th among women, less than 10 minutes behind the winner.
“In a couple of places there were pools and streams of water,” she says. “Once your shoes are totally soaked, it doesn’t really matter — although if you stepped in a puddle, you got a shock of cold.”
Since graduation, the mechanical engineering and music double major has been an engineer at General Dynamics in New London, Conn., where she runs with a club. “Instead of happy hour, we run,” she says. Her busy job keeps her from doing more than one marathon a year, making her finish in Boston all the more remarkable.
She does find time to do races with her mother. Since high school, they have pledged to run at least one 5K-or-longer race in every state.
“We made three over Christmas vacation — Florida, Alabama, Georgia — which makes 30,” she says. “Guess I am a little goal-oriented.”