The forecast Monday is calling for temperatures in the low 40s, rain and wind

By Rich Garven Worcester Telegram & Gazette

BOSTON --A daunting course and an elite international field won’t be the only challenges facing the 30,000-plus runners looking to conquer the 122nd Boston Marathon on Monday.

The weather is also going to be a major factor.

The forecast is calling for temperatures in the low 40s when the pro women depart Hopkinton at 9:32 a.m. followed by the pro men and first wave at 10 a.m., and the final wave at 11:15 a.m. The chilly conditions will be combined with heavy rain and high winds.

“Well, everyone has to deal with the same weather,” said Jordan Hassey, who finished third here last year in 2 hours, 23 minutes, a time that’s the fastest ever by an American woman in her marathon debut.

Molly Huddle, who resides in Providence, Rhode Island, and will be running in her first marathon Monday, took an equally pragmatic approach. She understands the wet, wild and windy weather is likely to drive times up and she’s fine with that.

“It is what it is,” Huddle said. “My coach (Ray Treacy) actually warned me when I chose this race and told me, ‘You know you can train really hard and race day might be awful weather.’ But I just want to compete. It’s about trying to finish in the top three or four places.

“Sometimes it’s kind of comforting to throw time out the window. I didn’t come here for time, I came here to compete. The weather will be an extra element for sure, but everyone just has to focus on their race plan. But it will be hard, yeah.”

Massey, Huddle, Shalane Flanagan of Marblehead, and Desiree Linden, who has three top-four finishes at Boston, lead a U.S. contingent that has a legitimate chance at placing an American woman atop the podium for the first time in 33 years.

While they’re competing against one another, they take comfort in knowing they have a level of familiarity with each other and they’ll all have the full support of the crowd.

“I think it gives you a lot of confidence when you’re running up there,” Massey said. “So you say, ‘OK, if they can do it I can do it as well.’ I remember last year it was only Des and I (up front), but people were chanting, ‘U-S-A, U-S-A.’

“So I’m sure this year with hopefully a couple more of us in that lead pack it will be just as enthusiastic. Yeah, I would love to be the one that wins it, but if not me then I would love for it to be another American.”

Like Massey, Galen Rupp is also back after making his marathon debut at Boston last year.

Rupp, 31, is a three-time Olympian coached by 1982 Boston champion and former Wayland resident Alberto Salazar. He’s looking to join 2014 champion Meb Keflezighi as the second American male to win here in the last 33 years.

Rupp came close last year, placing second in 2:09:58. That left him 21 seconds behind Geoffrey Kirui, who became the 20th Kenyan to win Boston in the past 27 years.

Rupp had an impressive showing despite having done little hill training due to injuries and then expending excessive energy once he hit the hills in Newton. He comes in this year healthy, better prepared due to extensive hill training and wiser to the ways of a Boston course that goes down, up and down over 26.2 miles.

“You always hear about the Newton hills and I got a little too excited,” said Rupp, who trains in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. “I think I just pushed a little too hard through there and forgot there’s still six miles to go when you get through there. It’s a long way, it’s not like you’re right at the finish line.

“That was the lesson I definitely took and tried to use it in Chicago to make sure I saved a little bit for those last five or six miles. That’s really where the race is won and lost.”

Rupp came back six months later to win the Chicago Marathon in 2:09:20, making him the first American male to win there in 15 years.

If the likes of Massey and Rupp can whether the wet conditions along with the daunting course and stiff competition, it could be a banner day for the U.S. in Boston.