Cheruiyot is the race record holder having clocked 2hr 7min 14sec in 2006 and carries a wealth of experience into Monday's race having been a regular feature of the world's other great marathons in London Berlin, New York and Chicago.
His compatriot Evans Cheruiyot, winner of the last marathon in Chicago, and who has already run faster over the distance with a best time of 2:06.25, will be one of the top contenders as will Benjamin Maiyo (2:07.09) and Daniel Rono (2:06.58).
Next weekend's London Marathon has proved a fierce competitor for available talent with Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru, also of Kenya, signed up to run, but the Boston race is unlikely to pass out of Kenyan hands.
The African nation has won 16 of the last 21 editions.
The two main threats to Kenyan supremacy will come from Ryan Hall and Deriba Merga.
Hall, 26, is aiming to be the first American winner in Boston since Greg Meyer in 1983.
The Californian, who hails from Big Bear Lake, a ski resort in the mountains near Los Angeles, has a best time of 2:06.17 set in London in 2008. He will be running only the fifth marathon of his career.
Merga could also be a threat. The 28-year-old Ethiopian clocked a personal best of 2:06.25 in London last year, finishing sixth just behind Hall.
He was fourth at the Beijing Olympics where he was agonisingly passed over the last 400 metres by compatriot Tsegay Kebede.
Merga won the Houston Marathon in January in a race record time of 2:07.52.
In the women's race, Russia's Ludiya Grigoryeva, the 2007 winner, aims to see off 2008 champion Dire Tune of Ethiopia while America's Kara Goucher carries home hopes.
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