While Harvard students may have taken advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather, a few choose to spend it running more than 26 miles.

Both officially and otherwise some students decided to try their mettle and participated in yesterday's 100th anniversary running of the Boston Marathon.

Near-perfect running weather rewarded the Harvard students who journeyed to Hopkinton to run the 26.2 mile course.

"It was really sunny" said, Marya L. Hill-Popper '96, who ran with Andrew T. Cowan '96, adding, "It was just really exciting. I feel great, it was so much fun."

The pair managed to complete the race in just under four hours.

Many students interviewed said that the festive environment surrounding the 100th Boston Marathon added to the thrill of the event.

"I saw two couples who had gotten married today and were running together," Hill-Popper said. "They were wearing like a veil and a tuxedo-top."

Jennifer L. Weh '96-97 ran with a friend who was celebrating her birthday yesterday.

"At every mile marker we sang her happy birthday. We had her bright red," she said.

Although a few were lucky enough to have gained official numbers, the largest segment this--and every year--are the unofficial runners who choose to infiltrate the race and run behind the field.

Fears of being removed from the course by the National Guard may have caused the field of unofficial "bandit" runners from Harvard in the marathon yesterday to be smaller than usual. But those who took their chances said they were treated to far fewer problems than expected.

"Actually the military police were really friendly and saying things like 'go bandit'" said Weh.

"It was totally awesome. Everyone said 'the National Guard is going to pull you out,' so we were kind of expecting not even to be able to run. So it was great to be able to," Nancy M. Dammann '98 said.

Race officials had feared as many as 12,000 "bandits," unofficial marathon entrants, might attempt to run in yesterday's marathon in addition to the largest-ever field of official runners, according to an Associated Press report.

However, only about 2,000 unofficial runners showed up on the course--even fewer than the usual 3,000 bandits.

While many students ran for personal pleasure, some of the students even managed to combine public service with the test of the endurance.