EDITOR'S NOTE: We originally neglected to have Michael McCarron's name on the list of Hopkinton runners for the Miles for Miracles team. Sorry Michael!  The total to date for the Miles for Miracles runners who ran in the 2011 Boston Marathon to raise money for Children's Hospital is $1,497,906, exceeding the team's goal by almost $200,000. Among those 209 runners are Hopkinton's Mike Toole, Michael McCarron, Paige Girardi and Ashleigh Whitten. Marlborough's Christine Johansen also wrote a series of columns for the Hopkinton Patch about training for and running her first marathon as part of …

Hopkinton hosted its most successful Boston Marathon start on Monday, April 18, with the help of legions of volunteers, town dignitaries, public safety and security officers and a community of athletes dedicated to acheiving their personal best. Morning chilly temperatures gave way to warmer weather as sunshine peeked through the clouds. There was also a strong tail-wind to provide runners with optimum course conditions. Hopkinton was filled with excitement as runners arrived to check in and warm up. At Hopkinton Town Hall, local runners from the Hopkinton Athletic Association filed in to …

If you have your doubts about staggering the starts of the Boston Marathon at the Hopkinton starting line, doubt no more. With technology that measures exactly when a runner crosses the start and finish lines, the Boston Athletic Association has made the start seven times as exciting. An army of volunteers and police kept order and the crowd was jubiliant and good natured throughout the morning, even with the inevitable jostling that goes on in good spots close to the start. People from California crowded with their fellow East Coast running enthusiasts to see dad or mom, daughter, son, …

Editors Gene Cassidy, Susan Petroni and Alissa Letkowski—as well as other Patchers— are on hand at the marathon's start in Hopkinton, as well as along the route in Framingham and Natick. We will be posting pictures in this space throughout the day, so stay tuned. Feel free to add your own!

Tourists thronged Copley Square snapping photos of the Boston Marathon Finish, which some of them hoped to see again today at the end of a victorius run. The Boston Marathon is very much about winning. But it's not just about the top finishers who win prizes and world recognition. It's also about the 25,000 runners brave enough to start, and almost that many who finish, pushing through all obstacles to cross the finish line in Boston, 26 miles from Hopkinton. Among the people most important to them—their families, co-workers, friends and for many, the beneficiaries of the charities for which …