Photo Provided Matt Riffle, left, and Jeffrey Wesolowski are gearing up to run in Monday’s Boston Marathon.

Monday is Patriot’s Day in Boston.

That means only one thing … the 126th running of the Boston Marathon will take to the streets of Beantown and several suburbs along the 26.2 mile route.

Three area runners — Candace Kesselring, Matt Riffle and Jeffrey Wesolowski — will be among the 30,000 race competitors at the starting line in Hopkinton

KESSELRING is the veteran marathon runner of the trio.

The 2013 John Marshall High School graduate, who owns a chemical engineering degree from West Virginia University, will be competing in her 11th marathon and second in Boston.

She should have no issues remembering the course because she ran in the 2021 event, which was just six months ago in October.

“It’s very unique to be going back so soon,” Kesselring said. “It will still be a lot different than in the fall because last year was a rolling start and a smaller field.”

After the marathon was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the marathon returned last year, but with different rules. The rolling start meant that basically buses took athletes to Hopkinton and dropped the competitors off. They were then free to start when they were ready.

Kesselring earned her way into this Boston Marathon, which is one of the few marathons in the world where the runners must post a qualifying time, by virtue of her time of 3 hours, 28 minutes in the 2019 Columbus Marathon.

“I wasn’t very far under the (qualifying) time and normally my time wouldn’t have been far enough under to get in,” Kesselring admitted. “Because of all of the COVID things my time from 2019 was still good enough. Next year, the race returns to totally normal in terms of the qualifying.”

The 27-year-old has competed in marathons in Berlin, New York City, Walt Disney World, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Morgantown.

It wasn’t until after she ran the Morgantown Half Marathon while she was finishing up her undergraduate work when Kesselring even gave thought to going the entire 26.2 miles.

“I had a friend in a class who said, ‘if you did that well in your first half marathon, you should run a full, so I started training and ran the Pittsburgh Marathon on a whim,” Kesselring said.

As for Monday, Kesselring’s goal is simple, “I am aiming to improve on my personal best time.”

RIFFLE, meanwhile, is embarking on his first Boston Marathon and only second marathon ever.

He earned the right to compete by virtue of running 2 hours, 44 minutes and 11 seconds at the Cleveland Marathon in October.

Riffle, who is a St. John Central and Wheeling Jesuit University graduate, was honestly surprised when he posted the time good enough for entry.

“I wasn’t sure an accomplishment like (qualifying) was possible because prior to running Cleveland, I hadn’t run competitively in a while,” Riffle said. “So to come back and run a qualifying time is very exciting. When I crossed the finish line and saw the time, I felt really confident that I was in.”

Riffle, as a long-time avid runner called Boston a “bucket-list item,” and even though he felt good about the time, it wasn’t until he received his formal notice of qualifying in December when the reality fully set in.

“I really kicked into the training when I got the letter,” Riffle said. “It’s a tough and historic race. It just means so much to be a part of it.”

Riffle has found marathon running — and trailing — to be something he fully enjoys, so he doesn’t plan on making this trip to Massachusetts a one-time deal.

“I’ve already got the Chicago Marathon lined up to run in October,” Riffle said. “I plan to stick with marathon racing for a while. During the pandemic, when I really started being consistent again with my running, and got to the point where I wanted to compete, the marathon seemed like the right fit.”

When competing at Jesuit, Riffle focused on the 10K in track, so the long-distance running has always been his forte.

“I’m not an experienced marathoner, but I do have a lot of races (of shorter distance) under my best,” Riffle said. “Obviously, (Boston) is different because of the excitement that surrounds it and it can be overwhelming.”

Riffle has laid out a pretty solid gameplan for the race, “I want to stay controlled for the first 16 or so miles, get through the hilliest portion and be ready to roll in the last several miles.”

WESOLOWSKI, who is a 2009 John Marshall and 2015 West Liberty graduate, began his running career on the local 5K circuit and then decided to join the Hilltoppers cross country program.

Wesolowski ran his first ‘long’ race in 2011 when he competed in the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon in Wheeling and three years later he found himself at the starting line for the Cleveland Marathon.

“I really wasn’t running for any certain kind of times or anything,” Wesolowski said. “I was just running it to run it and see if I could complete it.”

After being out of running for a while, Wesolowski got back involved in the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, he and his running group, which includes both Riffle and Kesselring, have been gearing toward marathons.

“I had been running with the group and we’d been doing some longer runs and I just decided to run (Cleveland) again and ran a good enough time to qualify,” Wesolowski admitted.

Wesolowski broke the tape in 2 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds and at that point he had a strong idea that a trip to Boston was in the offing.

“It still hasn’t set in,” Wesolowski said. “It probably won’t until I get to the starting line. I am just grateful for the opportunity to run in the premier marathon in the world.”

As for goals, Wesolowski, who lives in Bethlehem, would like to run sub 2 hours, 45 minutes.

“I think that’s certainly feasible,” Wesolowski said. “I would rather run between 2:40 and 2:43, but course conditions and weather can definitely play a role.”