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<p>In a tight race to lead the the city of Wilkes-Barre, a candidate named Leighton held off a fierce charge from a challenger who was once known as McLaughlin.</p><p>They weren&#8217;t running to become an elected official, though.</p><p>This battle may have officially been even more taxing, as Kelly Leighton edged Erin (McLaughlin) Griffin in a hotly-contested race Monday to become the first daughter of a former Wilkes-Barre mayor to reach the finish line of the 120th Boston Marathon.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s nice to have a little bit of Wilkes-Barre in Boston,&#8221; said Griffin, who father and former Wilkes-Barre leader Tom McLaughlin passed away in 1997. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure my dad is smiling down on that.&#8221;</p><p>The sun was smiling, too.</p><p>And that made things rather difficult for runners trying to complete a race that turned exhausting on an uncomfortably warm and humid day.</p><p>&#8220;The sun was just kind of beating down on you,&#8221; Kelly Leighton said. &#8220;Mission Hill, from mile 17 to 21, it&#8217;s hard. Today was especially hard because of the heat. I usually don&#8217;t stop at the water stations, but I made sure to stop at every one and take enough fluid.&#8221;</p><p>It must have worked.</p><p>Leighton, accompanied to the marathon by her parents, finished the race in 3:28:24, to place at 1,173 in the 18 to 39-year-old age group and 1,415 among women runners.</p><p>&#8220;Not a PR (personal record), but I was pretty happy,&#8221; Leighton said.</p><p>Griffin clocked in at 3:36:10, winding up at No. 2,547 among women but placing at 353 in the 40 to 45 age group.</p><p>&#8220;I was a little blindsided by the heat in general,&#8221; Griffin said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t run the time I was hoping for, I was shooting for 3:26. Once I got up Heartbreak Hill, I knew I knew halfway through I wasn&#8217;t going to be able to make my goal time. I wound up doing something I&#8217;ve never done before. I walked through all the aid stations. Once I got to the top, my left quad actually starting quivering. I had to drink.</p><p>&#8220;Kelly ran through them. I walked.&#8221;</p><p>And they weren&#8217;t really running against each other.</p><p>Rather, Griffin and Leighton were competing more against the elements and vying for their own goals &#8212; in this case, just to reach the finish line &#8212; while throwing full support behind each other throughout.</p><p>&#8220;Give a shout-out to the Leighton family, they were fabulous with their support,&#8221; Griffin said. &#8220;Kelly had a great race, she did awesome. I&#8217;m so proud of her.&#8221;</p><p>Monday marked the second Boston Marathon for both daughters of past Wilkes-Barre mayors, although it was the first time they were both running the same one.</p><p>Griffin made her first Boston run in 2014, finishing in just over 3 hours, 27 minutes the year after terroristic bombings at the finish line horrified the annual Patriot Day celebration in Boston.</p><p>&#8220;For a lot of people, that bombing made people wasnt to run another race,&#8221; Griffin said. &#8220;It&#8217;s one way of showing we&#8217;re not going to let terrorists change who we are or what we believe in.</p><p>&#8220;It strengthens our resolve, if anything.&#8221;</p><p>Last year, Leighton resolved to complete the Boston Marathon despite suffering through an illness. When she made her Boston debut, she sensed a mood that was more somber than celebratory.</p><p>&#8220;I really think it impacts the atmosphere,&#8221; Leighton said of the Boston bombings of three years ago. &#8220;It was really somber up there. I think it&#8217;s something we all think about and consider when we&#8217;re running.&#8221;</p><p>That awareness of the unspeakable didn&#8217;t make Leighton, Griffin or any of the tens of thousands of runners stop, though.</p><p>In her second crack at the Boston course, Leighton chopped nearly an hour off her time of 4 hours, 25 minutes during her first running on a course that may have been even more difficult than any of her father&#8217;s election trails.</p><p>&#8220;I think elections are very challenging,&#8221; Kelly Leighton said. &#8220;I&#8217;m really proud of the job he (mayor Leighton) did the past 12 years.&#8221;</p><p>And despite her disappointment with her latest finish, Griffin&#8217;s already eyeing another year on Heartbreak Hill, as her finish Monday qualified her for a return to next year&#8217;s Boston Marathon.</p><p>&#8220;Even though I&#8217;m disappointed in my own time, it&#8217;s not like I&#8217;m going to quit,&#8221; Griffin said. &#8220;And I did meet my second goal &#8212; that was to smile through the last two miles.</p><p>&#8220;And I have pictures to prove it.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Daughers of former Wilkes-Barre mayors complete Boston Marathon</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Daughters of former Wilkes-Barre mayors Kelly Leighton and Erin (McLaughlin) Griffin make a run of their own in Boston Marathon