Patricia Carreiro, 38, completed her 17th Boston Marathon on April 17, but the Dartmouth resident has run more than 40 marathons since 1994.

Carreiro has marked 26.2-mile victories in New York City, Florida, Lowell, Disney World, and Providence, but nothing quite compares to Boston races, she said.

"Out of all of them, [Boston] is definitely the hardest. You never know what kind of weather you're going to get or how you're going to feel," Carreiro said.

Carreiro — a nurse practitioner in Southcoast Hospital's vascular surgery unit — was one of six Dartmouth woman in Boston on Monday. She finished in three hours, 25 minutes, and 49 seconds.

"You train all winter in 40-degree weather. It was perfect [on Patriots' Day]. We had 70-degree weather," she said, noting that dehydration affected many runners.

Carreiro's running career began in high school. She ran cross country at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School. At Northeastern University, her roommate introduced her to longer-distance running, she said.

She raised enough money to run with a charity organization for her first Boston Marathon, and has qualified every year since, she said.

"In the beginning, it's a lot of excitement, a lot of waiting around. Toward the end, you're exhausted. I think a lot of us were just happy to finish," she said of Monday's race.

Carreiro trained with a group of South Coast women, tacking on smaller mileage on weekdays, and 15- to 22-mile runs on weekends, she said. At the race, the women's husbands and families cheered them on.

"It always feels amazing, especially after 2013. It's a blessing every year for me to be able to finish," said Carreiro, who was running in Boston the day of the marathon bombing.

Among her running companions was Dartmouth resident Erica Morency, a trainer at Dartmouth Total Fitness. The marathon was Morency's first Boston race, and fourth marathon.

"I said, 'I'm never going to run a marathon. I don't want to run that long,'" recalled the 40 year old of her first race. She began running six years ago with a group of friends, using the workouts as "social time." Then, she started entering local races.

Morency finished Monday's race in four hours, two minutes, and 39 seconds. Her training consisted of 5 a.m., 17-mile treadmill runs. While Morency usually takes two days off before a marathon, she did a slower five-mile route on Friday, and a quicker one-mile run on Saturday to get her legs moving.

"This year, my training has not gone as planned. My family has all had the flu," she said via phone.

Ahead of the race, Morency focused on a good night's sleep on Saturday and Sunday, and a clean breakfast and lunch on Easter Sunday.

"I did get some [Easter candy] for after [the race]," she said. "It's a lot to be exercising for that long."

The morning of the race, she awoke at 4:15 a.m., and started her day with water. By 4:45, she met with friends for a bus ride to Boston. The group arrived around 6:30 a.m. Morency had a small snack before the race, and took off running shortly after 10 a.m.

"You work to actually get there. When you're [in Boston], you just enjoy it," she said.

The times for Dartmouth's four other marathon runners were as follows: Jennifer McHugh, 38, 05:25:27; Molly Rouillard, 27, 02:57:39; Jessica Raposa, 28, 05:35:48; and Joy Will, 35, 04:06:07.