Kenya's Caroline Rotich wins women's title at Boston Marathon

Kenya's Caroline Rotich won the women's race at the Boston Marathon on Monday, beating Mare Dibaba in a shoulder-to-shoulder sprint down Boylston Street to win by 4 seconds as the world's most prestigious marathon took a tentative step back toward normal.

With many of the runners wearing long sleeves and gloves to fight off the cold in the second running since the bombings of 2013, American Desiree Linden led for much of the women's race. But Linden fell off the pace in the final miles as Rotich and a pair of Ethiopians pulled away.

After Buzunesh Deba, last year's runner-up, fell behind at the final turn onto Boylston Street, Rotich and Dibaba ran together for the final quarter-mile, switching places before Rotich kicked into the lead for her first Boston title.

"I got to the last corner and I saw the finish line tape and I thought, 'This is it, I'm not going to let it go,'" said Rotich, who also collected $150,000 while giving Kenya its fifth straight women's champion. "I was like, 'No, not today.' And I kept going."

Rotich won in 2:24:55, with Deba in third. Linden finished fourth, and fellow U.S. Olympian Shalane Flanagan was ninth.

Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa won the men's race after also winning in 2013.

American Tatyana McFadden won her third straight women's wheelchair race, and Marcel Hug won his first men's title earlier Monday. Ernst Van Dyk, the most decorated Boston Marathon competitor in history, finished second in his attempt to win the race for an 11th time.

Two years after the explosions, "Boston Strong" was still ubiquitous -- on shirts and signs, written in chalk on the street and shouted by spectators. But the crowds along the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Copley Square were smaller than in 2014, no doubt thinned by the mid-40s temperatures, stiff wind and rain that was expected to pick up in the afternoon.

Security was visible but not intrusive. State and local police, some riding bicycles and others on all-terrain vehicles, were supplemented by National Guard soldiers who walked alongside the road, applauding passing runners and occasionally reaching across the temporary fencing to high-five fans.

Officials were preparing for a crowd of 1 million spectators stretched along the route.