The last time Ben Beach was around for a Boston Marathon broadcast, on the radio, Lyndon Johnson was president and Beach was a high school student. The next year he ran, and has kept that up for the last 54 years, setting the race’s record for consecutive finishes. 

That’s where the record will end. This Monday, Beach, 72, will be watching, likely from home in Bethesda. After a late February bike crash left him with a broken neck, a five-week recovery period and seven weeks to go until race day, he decided last week that a two-week buildup was not going to set him up for success. 

Reston’s Susanna Sullivan has run the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile frequently enough to know the course extremely well, but she didn’t get the home field advantage she really wanted.

While leading the race in the second half, she had her eyes trained on the press truck ahead of her, watching her Capital Area Runners teammate Eva Greenberg, looking for some kind of feedback or indication of how strong her lead was. But Greenberg, working as a press assistant for the race, didn’t betray her professional responsibilities and gave Sullivan nothing back.

Check out just shy of 5,000 photos from mile 5.5 of Saturday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll D.C. Half Marathon here. If you use them, please credit Charlie Ban and @RunWashington.