By Justin McMahon, Contributing Editor

Boston, MA (Sports Network) -- A week after the Flora London Marathon opened the season for the World Marathon Majors, another group of elite runners will make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston on Monday April 21 for the 112th Boston Marathon.

Returning to defend their titles from last year's rainy and windy event will be Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot and Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva. Their 2007 times of 2:14:13 and 2:29:18, respectively, were the slowest winning times since 1985, also the last year in which an American woman (Lisa Larsen Weidenbach) won the event. An American male hasn't won in Boston since Greg Meyer in 1983.

Cheruiyot, who also won in 2006 and 2003, holds the course record with his time of 2:07:14 (2006). With another win he will become the first Kenyan runner to win four Boston Marathons, and will join Canadian Gerard Cote and Americans Bill Rodgers and Clarence DeMar as the only men to win four or more times.