All about Boston Marathon (The World’s Oldest Annual Marathon)
People often know that Boston Marathon is the oldest annual marathon and one of the most prestigious road races in the world. But it is no coincidence that it can be a part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. What made of its attraction? Follow us and find out!
About Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April. The first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics inspired the event, which began in 1897. The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world’s best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.
The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) has organized this event annually since 1897. DMSE Sports, Inc., has managed this race since 1988. Amateur and professional runners from all over the world compete in the Boston Marathon each year, braving the hilly Massachusetts terrain and varying weather to take part in the race.
The event attracts 500,000 spectators each year, making it New England’s most widely viewed sporting event. Though starting with 15 participants in 1897, the event now attracts an average of about 30,000 registered participants each year, with 30,251 people entering in 2015. The Centennial Boston Marathon in 1996 established a record as the world’s largest marathon with 38,708 entrants, 36,748 starters, and 35,868 finishers
History of Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon was first to run in April 1897. It having been inspired by the revival of the marathon for the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Until 2020 it was the oldest continuously running marathon, and the second-longest continuously running footrace in North America, having debuted five months after the Buffalo Turkey Trot.
On April 19, 1897, ten years after the establishment of the B.A.A., the association held the 24.5 miles (39.4 km) marathon to conclude its athletic competition, the B.A.A. Games. The inaugural winner was John J. “JJ” McDermott, who ran the 24.5-mile course in 2:55:10, leading a field of 15. The event was scheduled for the recently established holiday of Patriots’ Day, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty. The race, which became known as the Boston Marathon, has been held every year since then, even during World War years & the Great Depression, making it the world’s oldest annual marathon. In 1924, the starting line was moved from Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland to Hopkinton Green and the course was lengthened to 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to conform to the standard set by the 1908 Summer Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.
The Boston Marathon was originally a local event, but its fame and status have attracted runners from all over the world.
For most of its history, the Boston Marathon was a free event, and the only prize awarded for winning the race was a wreath woven from olive branches. However, corporate-sponsored cash prizes began to be awarded in the 1980s, when professional athletes refused to run the race unless a cash award was available. The first cash prize for winning the marathon was awarded in 1986.
Walter A. Brown was the President of the Boston Athletic Association from 1941 to 1964. During the height of the Korean War in 1951, Brown denied Koreans entry into the Boston Marathon. He stated: “While American soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea, every Korean should be fighting to protect his country instead of training for marathons. As long as the war continues there, we positively will not accept Korean entries for our race on April 19.”
About marathon running gear read: Essential Running Gear List That You Need for Training
Race
1. Qualifying
The Boston Marathon is open to runners 18 or older from any nation, but they must meet certain qualifying standards. To qualify, a runner must first complete a standard marathon course certified by a national governing body affiliated with the World Athletics within a certain period of time before the date of the desired Boston Marathon (usually within approximately 18 months prior).
In the 1980s and 1990s, membership in USA Track & Field was required of all runners, but this requirement has been eliminated.
Qualifying standards for the 2013 race were tightened on February 15, 2011, by five minutes in each age-gender group for marathons run after September 23, 2011.
- Prospective runners in the age range of 18–34 must run a time of no more than
- 3:05:00 (3 hours 5 minutes) if male
- 3:35:00 (3 hours 35 minutes) if female
- The qualifying time is adjusted upward as age increases.
- In addition, the 59-second grace period on qualifying times has been completely eliminated. For example, a 40- to 44-year-old male will no longer qualify with a time of 3:15:01.
An exception to the qualification times is for runners who receive entries from partners.
In 2010, about 5,470 additional runners, including 2,515 charity runners, won entries through partners. The marathon currently allocates spots to two dozen charities who in turn are expected to raise more than $10 million a year. For instance,
On October 18, 2010, the 20,000 spots reserved for qualifiers were filled in a record-setting eight hours and three minutes. The speed of registration prompted the B.A.A. to change its qualifying standards for the 2013 marathon onward. In addition to lowering qualifying times, the change includes a rolling application process, which gives faster runners priority. Organizers decided not to significantly adjust the number of non-qualifiers.
On September 27, 2018, the B.A.A. announced that they were lowering the qualifying times for the 2020 marathon by another five minutes, with
- male runners in the 18–34 age group required to run a time of 3:00:00 (3 hours) or less
- female runners in the 18–34 age group required to run a time of 3:30:00 (3 hours, 30 minutes) or less
2. Boston Marathon Race day
The race has traditionally been held on Patriots’ Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts, and until 1969 that was every April 19, whichever day of the week that fell on. From 1969 to 2019, the holiday was observed on the third Monday in April and so the marathon date was correspondingly fixed to that Monday, often referred to by local residents as “Marathon Monday”.
3. Starting times
Through 2005, the race began at noon, (wheelchair race at 11:25 a.m., and elite women at 11:31 a.m), at the official starting point in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. In 2006, the race used a staggered “wave start”, where top-seeded runners (the elite men’s group). The first batch of up to 10,000 runners started at noon, with a second group starting at 12:30. The race’s start times were pushed forward the following year. It allows both runners to take advantage of cooler weather and reopens the roads sooner. The marathon later added third and fourth waves to help further stagger the runners and reduce congestion.
4. Course
The course runs through 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) of winding roads, following Route 135, Route 16, Route 30 and city streets into the center of Boston, where the official finish line is located at Copley Square, alongside the Boston Public Library. The race runs through eight Massachusetts cities and towns: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston.
The Newton hills, which culminate in Heartbreak Hill near Boston College, make the Boston Marathon one of the more challenging marathon courses.
5. Records
Because the course drops 459 feet (140 m) from start to finish and the start is quite far west of the finish, allowing a helpful tailwind. Therefore, the Boston Marathon does not satisfy two of the criteria necessary for the ratification of the world or American records.
At the 2011 Boston Marathon on April 18, 2011, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya ran a time of 2:03:02. It was the fastest ever marathon at the time (since surpassed by Eliud Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 in Berlin 2018). However, due to some reasons, Mutai’s performance was not ratified as an official world record. Bezunesh Deba from Ethiopia set the women’s course record with a 2:19:59 performance on April 21, 2014.
In history, people have set the world records in Boston four times.
- Suh Yun-bok of South Korea set the men’s record time of 2:25:39 in 1947.
- Liane Winter of West Germany set a women’s world record of 2:42:24 in 1975.
- Joan Benoit Samuelson of the United States set a women’s world wheelchair record of 2:22:43 in 1983.
- Joshua Cassidy of Canada set a men’s world wheelchair record in 2012.
Sunita Williams, an astronaut on the International Space Station at the time, was an official entrant in the race. He ran a marathon distance while there and then became the first person to run a marathon in space. On the STS-117 flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the B.A.A. gave her a special bib and medal.
The race’s organizers keep a standard time clock for all entries, though official timekeeping ceases after the six-hour mark.
Boston Marathon’s Divisions
In 1975, the Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include a wheelchair division competition. Bob Hall wrote race director Will Cloney to ask if he could compete in the race in his wheelchair. Cloney wrote back that he could not give Hall a race number. However, he would recognize Hall as an official finisher if he completed the race in under 3 hours and 30 minutes. Hall finished in 2 hours and 58 minutes, paving the way for the wheelchair division.
Since at least 2014, hand cyclists have participated in the event. Since 2017, hand cyclists have been honored in the same way as runners and wheelchair racers have been: with wreaths, prize money, and the playing of the national anthems of the men’s and women’s winners.
The Boston Marathon also has a blind/visually impaired section and a mobility-impaired service in addition to the push rim wheelchair division. For these categories, people have developed a list of qualifying times to encourage young athletes and ensure competitive excellence. In 1986, the introduction of prize money at the Boston Marathon gave the push rim wheelchair division the richest prize purse in the sport. More than 1,000 people with disabilities and impairments have participated in the wheelchair division. The other divisions, on the other hand, have grown in popularity year after year. In 2013, 40 blind runners took part.
To sum up, it’s not just the elite runners that make the Boston Marathon special. Its history is also a part of what makes this marathon so unique. Join the spirit of Boston shines, why not?
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