MOULTRIE — Colquitt County runners Amy Sharon, Steve Johnson and Jimmy Allegood will again compete in the Boston Marathon this year.

This year’s 26.2-mile race is scheduled for Monday.

The trio’s qualifying times allow them to join the elite runners and start in the first wave of the two-wave start of this year’s 20,000-runner field.

The Boston competitors begin the day assembling in downtown Boston as early as 6:30 a.m. for the bus ride to Hopkinton, Mass., where at 11 a.m., they will be staged for the noon start of the first wave or for the second-wave start at 12:30 p.m.

The 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston is considered one of most challenging of world marathon courses.

The fact that the overall women’s or men’s winner’s time has never set a world record in the modern running era attests to the difficulty of the course.

Johnson will be competing in his third consecutive Boston Marathon. He currently holds the men’s record for “The Running Group,” composed of Colquitt County runners.

Johnson’s 3:05 finishing time at the Jacksonville Marathon last December eclipsed Ben Marion’s long standing group record by eight minutes.

Sharon currently holds the women’s record for the group with a 3:28 finish at Jackson-ville the previous year and is competing in her third Boston Marathon.

Allegood will be competing in his fourth consecutive Boston Marathon.

Johnson and Allegood have also completed marathons that qualify them to compete in next year’s 2007 Boston Marathon.

The three acknowledge the training support of fellow runners Angela Castellow, Matt Littleton and Michael Strickland, who joined them on many training runs.

The runners’ progress can be monitored on race day at www.bostonmarathon.com.