Amy Fowler made a promise to her father to run the Boston Marathon. It’s taken several years, but on April 16 she ran in his honor at the 122nd race.

It was her first ever Boston Marathon run, and her second marathon overall. She started running after college to stay in shape. She promised her father Tom Fowler she would run 26.2 miles as he was undergoing treatment for bladder cancer.

“It was motivation for him to get through some tough treatments,” Fowler said.

Tom passed away a week later, and Fowler ran the Vermont City Marathon in his honor in 2011. She committed to running Boston in October 2017 with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to benefit kidney disease research. She’s raised $9,204 to date.

Her time was 4:00:03, just seconds over her personal goal of finishing in four hours.

“All things considered, I really can’t be anything but ecstatic about that,” she said, adding that about 10 percent of runners did not even finish.

Jonathan Barboza accomplished his dream with his first Boston Marathon run.

After graduating from Dartmouth High and ending his four-year cross country career, he kept up with the hobby for exercise. In 2012, he ran the New Bedford Half Marathon, and has ran several others since then.

Heading into the race, he was not too worried about his performance, and just wanted to enjoy the experience. He finished at 5:11:46.

“Although Boston is a serious race – it’s one of the longest, most continually run marathons in the world – I’m not approaching this as a serious race,” Barboza said.

A group of veteran and newbie runners from Dartmouth – Erica Morency, Barbara Corey, Pamela Kelly, and Patricia Baptiste – had been training together for months.

It was Corey’s first run in Boston. After several failed attempts to qualify, her time in the 2016 Mohawk Hudson River Marathon was her ticket in. But the weather proved challenging.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Corey said. “I’m usually one of those runners that if it’s windy or raining I won’t run outside.”

Her time was 4:28:35, missing her four-hour goal due to the weather. Although it’s an item on her bucket list she can cross off, she plans to take a break.

Baptiste, one of the most experienced runners in the group, served as mentor as this was her 18th run in Boston.

“I had no doubt they could do it physically,” Baptiste said. “With this sort of distance it’s a mind game you play with yourself.”

She helped the group come up with ways to combat the weather, from donning shower caps and dish gloves to keeping feet dry with plastic bags. Her time was 3:26:17.

“For me, once stuff starts freezing and my body temperature drops I struggle,” she said.

Erica Morency ran in her second Boston Marathon. She had hoped to finish in under four hours, but an unexpected delay on the race course set her back several minutes. Her time was 4:03:56.

“It’s a hard marathon; it’s very hilly. There are hills everywhere,” Morency said.

Kelly finished at 4:37:54. Other runners include South Dartmouth’s Molly Rouillard, who finished at 3:16:36.