Neighbors' 40-Year Boston Marathon Streak

Westford neighbors Scott Graham and Gerard Ottaviano both finished the 2026 Boston Marathon, with Graham reaching 40 straight starts and Ottaviano extending his streak to 42. (westfordcat.org) (wcvb.com) WestfordCAT reported Graham finished in 5:10:01 and Ottaviano in 6:48:01 in the April 20 race from Hopkinton to Boston. The Lowell Sun listed them among local runners who extended long consecutive Boston streaks this year. (westfordcat.org) (lowellsun.com) WCVB said Graham, who works in information technology, entered 2026 aiming for his 40th consecutive Boston. The station identified Ottaviano as a retired software developer preparing for his 43rd straight appearance, or 42nd officially counted by Boston standards. (wcvb.com) That distinction goes back to Ottaviano’s first run in 1983, when he told WCVB he joined unofficially after someone handed out bib numbers in the crowd. The Boston Athletic Association’s results archive shows the race has official records stretching back more than a century. (wcvb.com) (baa.org) Both men are part of the Boston Marathon’s Quarter Century Club, which WCVB described as a group of about 130 runners with at least 25 consecutive finishes. WCVB said only 13 active members are above 40 consecutive races, with three above 50. (wcvb.com) The streaks survived the 2020 pandemic cancellation by treating Patriots’ Day as the fixed point rather than the official race itself. Graham told WCVB he ran a full marathon on a New Hampshire school track that day, finishing after 106 laps. (wcvb.com) Ottaviano has also turned the race into a personal archive. WCVB showed him surrounded by Boston Marathon posters and memorabilia he said he collected so older pieces of race history would not get lost. (wcvb.com) The 2026 race was the 130th Boston Marathon, according to the Boston Athletic Association and Olympics.com results coverage. For Graham and Ottaviano, that long history now includes another April finish line and another year added to a streak measured in decades. (baa.org) (olympics.com)