Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race that is set in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Organized by the Boston Athletic Association, the race is held on the third Monday of April and takes place in all but the severest of weather. The third Monday of April is commemoratively known as Patriots’ Day in several cities in the United States in honor of the first battles of the Revolutionary War. The first Boston Marathon was held in 1897 and is credited as the world’s oldest annual marathon. The marathon’s course begins in the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and runs to Copley Square in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, measuring approximately 26 miles in total. Runners from all over the world travel to Boston to compete in the marathon each year, and the event garners approximately thirty thousand registered participants on average. The race attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators and is one of the most watched sporting events in the northeastern region of the country.

Background

The Boston Marathon was conceived by John Graham, a US Olympic team manager and member of the Boston Athletic Association. Graham was inspired to organize the race after seeing how well the public responded to the 1896 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The original race was a total of 24.5 miles from the Irvington Oval in Boston, Massachusetts, to Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland, Massachusetts. The first Boston Marathon was held on April 19, 1897, with just fifteen participants. Only ten runners made it to the finish line, however. The winner of the first Boston Marathon was John J. McDermott, who represented the Pastime Athletic Club of New York City. His time was 2:55:10, more than six minutes ahead of his closest competition.

At the time of the first marathon, the state of Massachusetts celebrated April 19 as Patriots’ Day. Patriots’ Day was a regional holiday primarily celebrated in Massachusetts and Maine. This day honored the beginning of the Revolutionary War, specifically the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Menotomy, which were the first battles of the war. When the date fell on a Sunday, the marathon was held the following Monday. The race was held on April 19 of each year until 1969, when Patriot’s Day was officially moved to the third Monday in April.

More changes to the race layout came as the years passed and more runners began participating. Originally, participation was free, and winners received an olive branch wreath as a prize. Eventually, an entry fee and monetary prizes were introduced. Participant numbers rose dramatically as the decades wore on. Race authorities also adjusted the course location and distance. In 1908, the marathon’s length was changed to 26 miles and 385 yards in accordance with Olympic standards.

The race was restricted to male participants until 1972, when it began allowing women. Female runners attempted to infiltrate the marathon on several occasions before 1972. Roberta Gibb was the first female to run the full marathon in 1966, although she was not officially registered and hid in the bushes near the starting line until the race began. The following year, Katherine Switzer ran the race as a registered participant by not clearly indicating her gender on her application. Nina Kuscsik was the first official female participant to win the Boston Marathon in 1972. In 1975, the Boston Marathon added a wheelchair division competition. The first wheelchair competition was won by Bob Hall.

Overview

The Boston Marathon is 26 miles and 385 yards in length (42.195 km). Anyone aged 18 or older is allowed to participate; however, due to high demand, some qualifying runners are not able to register. For many years, the marathon charged separate fees for US residents and international participants. However, in the 2024 registration for the 2025 race, the marathon moved to simply charging $250 for all qualifying racers. The male and female runners who finish the race first in the open division each receive a $150,000 prize, while second place wins $75,000, and third place takes home $40,000. Smaller sums are awarded all the way down to tenth place. Runners must meet certain qualifying standards to be allowed to participate. They need to have completed a standard International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) certified marathon course before they qualify to run the Boston Marathon. Runners are required to complete these courses within a set amount of time, and qualifying times vary by age and gender. As participation increased over the years, marathon authorities were forced to stagger race start times to reduce course congestion. In 2024, the race start times were as follows:

• Men’s Push Rim Wheelchair: 9:02 AM
• Women’s Push Rim Wheelchair: 9:05 AM
• Handcycles and Duos: 9:30 AM
• Professional Men: 9:37 AM
• Professional Women: 9:47 AM
• Wave One: 10:00 AM
• Wave Two: 10:25 AM
• Wave Three: 10:50 AM
• Wave Four: 11:15 AM

The race begins in the town of Hopkinton, moving along several state routes and passing through other towns in the Boston area such as Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, and Newton before arriving in Boston. The official finish line is located at Copley Square in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. The Boston Marathon course is known for being very difficult due to the number of hills featured throughout the run. One hill in Newton is referred to as Heartbreak Hill due to its steepness.

The Boston Marathon attracts anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 spectators each year, making it New England’s most widely viewed sporting event. The sheer size of the event has raised safety and security concerns over the years. In 2013, the Marathon was the setting of a lone wolf terrorism plot in which two bombs detonated near the finish line, killing three people and injuring hundreds more. The tragedy was cited as a source of inspiration for the following year’s winner, Mebrahtom (Meb) Keflezighi, the first American to win the race since 1983. Professional racers finish the race in just over two hours and the marathon officially ends by 5:30 p.m.

Bibliography

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“First Boston Marathon Held.” History.com, 28 July 2019, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-boston-marathon-held. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

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Hoppe, Stephanie. “The History of the Boston Marathon.” Women’s Running, 11 Apr. 2018, www.womensrunning.com/2018/04/racing/history-of-boston-marathon‗88768. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“How Much Prize Money Do You Get for Winning the Boston Marathon?” Boston Globe Media Partners, www.boston.com/sports/boston-marathon/2019/03/18/2019-boston-marathon-winners-prize-money. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

Owens, Isabel. “What Time Does the Boston Marathon Start?” Boston Globe Media Partners, 12 Apr. 2019, www.boston.com/sports/boston-marathon/2019/03/18/what-time-does-2019-boston-marathon-start. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“Spectator Information.” Boston Athletics Association, www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/watch/spectators. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.