MOUNT VERNON — Some 25,000 runners lined up in Hopkinton, Mass., on April 21 for the 26.2-mile run to Copley Square and the finish line of the 112th Boston Marathon.

And within that mass of runners, the second largest in the race’s history, were a pair of Sedro-Woolley High School graduates.

While Darin Gallagher still calls Sedro-Woolley home, Laena Shiozawa (formerly Skiles) lives in Logandale, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas. She’s been running recreationally for about 13 years and competitively since 2001.

Both ventured to Massachusetts for what is touted as the world’s oldest annually contested marathon. For Gallagher, it was his eighth marathon.

The 40-year-old Gallagher, who wore bib number 8,239, crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 27 minutes. Shiozawa, a 34-year-old mother of two wearing bib number 14,960, stopped the clock in 3:32.

Both runners said the magnitude of the event was impressive, in particular, the estimated 500,000 spectators who lined the course.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Gallagher said. “I don’t really get nervous before races. What I do get is antsy the days leading up to a race. Boston was no different. I spend four months training for one race. The closer it gets, the more I start to think about what could go wrong.

“As far as the race was concerned, it was really neat to be a part of the whole thing.”

And running in front of such a throng of spectators?

“It was absolutely wonderful to see that many people lined up for 26 miles, and for at least half of it they were three and four deep on both sides of the road,” said Gallagher. “It was incredible. And the organization of the whole event was really impressive.”

Shiozawa described the experience as surreal.

“It was overwhelming,” she said. “The spectators on the course cheering the entire way were incredible. But what was interesting to me was the fact that once the race started, there was no talking or chatting with other runners.”

Runners started in two waves. Gallagher was in the first wave of blue bibs and numbers 1,000-13,999. He had about 7,000 runners in front of him.

“It took me about five minutes to get to the starting line, which wasn’t too bad,” he said.

Shiozawa almost missed the start altogether.

“Just getting to the starting line was crazy,” she said. “I started at the front of the second wave. I got there 30 seconds before the start. I was running through yards and hurdling anything in my way.”

Gallagher admitted to running a conservative race. There was a reason for that — Heartbreak Hill.

Heartbreak Hill is an ascent between miles 20 and 21. It is the last of four “Newton hills,” which begin at the 16-mile mark.

Because they occur late in a race dominated by descents, these inclines cause runners problems. Heartbreak Hill rises only 80 vertical feet. At that point in the race, however, many runners are being pushed to their physical and mental limits.

That wasn’t the case for Gallagher.  He took Heartbreak Hill in stride.

“I got to Heartbreak Hill and was like, ‘That was it?’” he said. “It’s not this great big hill. It’s just where it’s located that causes so many people to give up.”

Shiozawa said the race was tougher than she expected.

“Running downhill doesn’t bother me,” she said. “But it was a long, steady climb between miles 16 and 21. It just fries your quads. After running downhill, your muscles start contracting against themselves.”

Gallagher, who works in marketing for DeLaval Inc., began running while a student at Washington State University as a way to keep off the “freshmen 15 (pounds).”

He played football and wrestled in high school. A severely dislocated shoulder, however, prematurely ended his wrestling career.

“I tried running track,” Gallagher said, “but I just didn’t like it. So once I got to Pullman, I was looking for something to control my weight and running worked well. I was running three, four, five miles a day. Once I graduated from WSU in 1991, I kept running recreationally.”

That was the path for the next decade. Then in 2001, Gallagher decided to give marathons a shot. He set his sights on a race in Vancouver, B.C., with the goal of covering the distance in four hours.

He crossed the finish line in 4:01.

“I just didn’t run Vancouver right,” he explained. “I started out way too fast. That is the biggest mistake rookies make. After that, a professional runner told me that there is no banking time in a marathon. If you run the first half five minutes faster than you expected, you are going to run 10 or 15 minutes slower the second half.”

Shiozawa ran her first marathon in 2004 at the Valley of Fire race.

“I think it was something that I always wanted to do,” she said. “It was just matter of motivation. Training in the winter is easy, training in the summer is hard. You have to get up at 2:30 or 3 a.m. to get your four or five miles in before the sun rises. Here, there really isn’t a day you can’t run.”

So Gallagher returned from Vancouver pleased with his effort, but discouraged with his time. Missing his goal by a minute simply did not sit well.

Later that year, he ran the Seattle Marathon and cruised across the finish line in 3:50, having run the race right.

In 2006, he returned to Vancouver in search of redemption and with a goal of 3:30. He ran a 3:29.

“I hit it that time,” he said of meeting his goal. “I did what I wanted to do.”

That time of 3:29 got Gallagher to thinking. Now he was only 10 minutes off a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.

Once again, he began to train. This time around, however, things didn’t go as planned. Two weeks before running the Seattle Marathon, Gallagher injured his back. He ventured to the starting line in Seattle in hopes of running, but he couldn’t. The next year was spent rehabbing.

“I had went from being able to run a marathon,” he lamented, “to not being able to run two miles.”

Back at the Seattle Marathon in 2007, Gallagher redeemed himself, posting a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:19. That qualified him for the races in 2008 and 2009.

Shiozawa qualified for the Boston Marathon at two races. She did it first at the Pocatello Marathon in 2006 with a time of 3:39 and the following year at the St. George Marathon in 3:29.

“St. George has some very steep downhill stretches and some crazy uphills,” she said.

Gallagher thought about skipping the 2008 Boston Marathon and concentrating on 2009. A friend gave it to him straight.

“He told me that I needed to run this year (2008),” he said, “because you never know what could happen the next year. Simply put, he told me to run it.”

And he did. Now he’s setting his sights on 2009.

“I learned a lot about the course itself,” Gallagher said. “Next time, I will be able to run it. It’s almost all downhill and I knew that going in. You’re OK for the first 15 miles. After that, the pounding really gets to you. Next time, I will train more for the downhills.

“I am still happy with my time, but I have a goal of running 3:15. I still felt like I had a lot left over after I finished the race.”

For Shiozawa, she’s not sure if she’ll run Boston again.

“If you had asked me right after the race,” she said, “I would have said no way. But now, I am thinking maybe. The option is still there.”

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at