Pictured here to the left Andy Martin, Jr passed through Ashland, the second town on the route. Andy was a patient partner with Ray Phillips until entering the race on his own last year. Tough head winds and blustery rain kept him from beating his 2014 time but didn't deter him from finishing the race.

With a different strategy, Ray Phillips ran with the crowd through Ashland.

"I don't worry about how fast I go. I have fun and interact with the crowd," he said.

Even in the unforgiving rain and wind, Phillips came through for his patient partner Alice McCarthy.

Mike Rzeszutek stopped to accept congratulations from the Kids at Heart cheering section in Wellesley. This was his first Marathon ever. He completed the course in a respectable three hours, 52 minutes, keeping a remarkably steady pace throughout the race.

"Every year we challenge ourselves to do better than the year before," said Paul Marotta, board chairman of the over $1 billion credit union based in Hanscom AFB, Mass. "In 2015, we had three Marathoners on our team and a goal of $30,000, making this the biggest challenge we've faced in 16 years. We ended up with more than $37,000.  I am so proud of the members, staff, and volunteers of Hanscom FCU, who made this happen."

The funds raised are a portion of $300,000 pledged by the CU Kids at Heart team to support research at Children's Hospital Boston. Specifically, programs targeting Sturge-Weber syndrome and moyamoya disease each received $100,000 this year.