Marc Jeuland of Carrboro might have been the most surprised runner in a field of more than 13,000 when he finished 15th in the Boston Marathon on Monday.

"I had no idea I was that far up," Jeuland said by telephone from Boston on Tuesday.

"At the finish, someone called out, 'You're 15th,' and I couldn't believe it."

Jeuland, a doctoral student in environmental science and engineering at the University of North Carolina, placed third-highest among American runners.

Last fall, he was disappointed in a 93rd- place finish in the U.S. Olympic Trials held in New York's Central Park.

"It was loop course where you ran past the same place four times," he said. "It was exhausting mentally, but also was fatiguing on the muscles because you kept using the same ones over and over."

Boston was the ideal race to restore his excitement.

"Boston is one of those marathons that you hear about," he said. "Running there is a goal for distance runners."

The race was every bit as fulfilling as he had imagined.

"People are lined up all along the course," he said. "It is just an amazing atmosphere."

Jeuland said the race's reputation for being demanding is warranted, although the first half of the race is basically downhill.

"You have to keep your pace," he said, "because the last half of the race is grueling. At the halfway point I decided I wasn't going to slow down too much. It was really tough by the end."

Jeuland ran the 26-mile course in 2 hours, 20 minutes, 57 seconds. Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won in 2:07.46.

Jeuland ran his first marathon in his native Chicago in October of 2005 and ran there again the next year, finishing in 2:20.33.

He recently recovered from mononucleosis and his training regimen was altered by a visit to Ethiopia, where he was working on research for his studies.

But on Monday everything came together for him.

"I'm pretty happy," he said.