After the Boston Marathon, the clam chowder ritual begins

Evan Wood does things a little differently on Marathon Monday.

The 32-year-old New Yorker has developed a unique tradition to celebrate a marathon each year: eating a quarter of clam chowder.

This year marks the third time Wood has eaten New England’s favorite soup in large quantities, continuing a ritual he started, and repeating it in 2023. The question, of course, is how it started.

After his first two Boston Marathons, he said, “I was shaking to death and loved oyster chowder too much.”

So after finishing the 2026 Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 37 minutes and 43 seconds — a personal record — Wood was hungry.

He returned to his hotel to shower, change into normal clothes, and eat a sandwich (he admitted he had to eat something), before heading to Legal Sea Foods in Downtown Crossing.

He joked that the “light jog to Boston” was the most turbulent part of his day, followed by a quart of clam chowder — worth $29.96.

“I ate that chowder in record speed,” he said. “Two personal records in one day!”

Annie Jonas is a community writer for Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.