56 Fun Facts About Boston Marathon

In which town does the Boston Marathon start?

Hopkinton has hosted the start since 1924, when the course was lengthened to meet the Olympic standard and the starting line had to move west from Ashland.

Where in Boston is the finish line?

Boylston Street in the Back Bay hosts the finish line; runners reach it through the famous 'right on Hereford, left on Boylston' turns that close the course.

On which holiday is the Boston Marathon traditionally held?

Patriots' Day marks the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. Until 1969 the holiday fell on April 19; then it moved to the third Monday of April, the day Boston now calls Marathon Monday.

Where did the first Boston Marathon finish?

A running track: the 1897 race was part of the B.A.A.'s spring athletics meet, so the runners finished with a lap of the Irvington Oval, where the meet was being held.

Which event inspired the founding of the Boston race?

The 1896 Athens Olympics marathon, won by Spyridon Louis, so impressed B.A.A. team manager John Graham that the association, itself founded in 1887, organised its own marathon.

What distinction does Boston hold among the world's big road races?

Oldest annual marathon is Boston's distinction: it has been staged in some form every year since its founding, through both world wars and the Depression, with only a virtual edition in 2020.

Who won the first Boston Marathon, leading a field of just 15 runners?

John J. McDermott of New York took the lead on the Newton hills and, though he walked several times in the final miles, still won by almost seven minutes; he had won America's first marathon the previous autumn.

The Boston Marathon was lengthened in the 1920s to match the distance first run at which Olympics?

London 1908 produced the odd figure of 26 miles 385 yards, later adopted as the marathon standard; Boston, run over a shorter course since 1897, moved its start farther west in 1924 to conform.

Which insurer's sponsorship brought the Boston Marathon its first prize money in 1986?

John Hancock became principal sponsor and the cheques followed: 1986 winner Rob de Castella took home $60,000 and a Mercedes-Benz from a race that had never before paid its champions a cent.

Which town does the Boston Marathon pass through last before finishing in Boston?

Brookline comes last of the eight cities and towns: runners touch Boston near mile 21, leave it again for more than two miles through Brookline, then return for the final mile and a half.

Near which school does Heartbreak Hill crest?

Boston College stands where the climbing ends: after a largely downhill run from the start, the course turns upward through the four Newton hills, and Heartbreak, the last, tops out beside its campus.

Why do Boston Marathon runners dread the modest Heartbreak Hill?

Its late timing: Heartbreak Hill arrives around mile 20, just where a marathoner's stored glycogen tends to run out, the moment runners call hitting the wall, so even a gentle rise can feel like a mountain.

Whose friendly pat on a rival's shoulder in 1936 backfired and gave Heartbreak Hill its name?

John A. Kelley, the 1935 champion, patted Ellison 'Tarzan' Brown on the shoulder as he passed him on the Newton hills; Brown rallied, retook the lead and won, breaking Kelley's heart, as a Boston reporter put it.

Whose students form the Scream Tunnel about half a mile before halfway?

Wellesley students are said to have started it at the first race in 1897, cheering a favourite Harvard runner; today their quarter-mile wall of noise, with high-fives and even kisses on offer, can be heard well before runners arrive.

Which woman hid near the start and ran the whole 1966 Boston Marathon, before women could enter?

Bobbi Gibb hid in the bushes near the start, slipped into the pack after the gun and finished in 3:21:40, ahead of most of the men; the B.A.A. later recognised her as its first women's champion.

Which official tried to rip Kathrine Switzer's number off during the 1967 race?

Jock Semple grabbed Switzer by the shirt and went for her number until her boyfriend, a 235-pound hammer thrower, sent him flying with a cross-body block; she ran on to the finish.

What bib number did Kathrine Switzer wear in 1967, later the name of her non-profit?

261 was pinned on after she entered as 'K. V. Switzer'; fifty years later, at 70, she ran Boston wearing it again, and the B.A.A. then retired the number in her honour.

Who won the Boston Marathon's first official women's race, in 1972?

Nina Kuscsik won the first official women's race in 3:10:26, having lobbied the Amateur Athletic Union to lift its distance limit on women's racing.

Which impostor crossed the 1980 finish line first in the women's race and was disqualified?

Rosie Ruiz appeared in no race footage until the closing stretch, and officials concluded she had slipped in from the crowd near the finish; she was stripped of the title about a week later.

Which Canadian was declared the 1980 women's winner after the impostor was disqualified?

Jacqueline Gareau of Quebec ran most of the race in front, only to see another woman cross the line first; a week later she was declared champion, her 2:34:28 a women's course record.

Where had the 1980 impostor reportedly been spotted during her qualifying New York City Marathon?

On the subway: freelance photographer Susan Morrow said she met the impostor riding the train during the 1979 New York City Marathon and walked with her to the finish area, where she was then recorded as a finisher.

Who had won seven Boston Marathons by 1930?

Clarence DeMar won in 1911, then stepped back from racing after doctors warned him he was risking his health; he returned to win six more titles between 1922 and 1930, the last at age 41.

Which American outsprinted Dick Beardsley to win the 1982 Boston Marathon, the 'Duel in the Sun'?

Alberto Salazar beat Beardsley in a sprint finish after a head-to-head duel, then collapsed and needed six litres of intravenous saline; both men had finished inside the old course record.

Rhode Island's Ellison 'Tarzan' Brown, a two-time Boston Marathon winner, belonged to which tribe?

Narragansett runner Ellison 'Tarzan' Brown won in 1936 with the late surge on the Newton hills that gave Heartbreak Hill its name, then won again in 1939.

Which American won four Boston Marathons between 1975 and 1980?

Bill Rodgers had given up running after his student days, then came back and won Boston in 1975 in an American-record 2:09:55, the first of his four titles.

Which 1968 winner, then a Wesleyan student, later edited Runner's World?

Amby Burfoot won as a Wesleyan senior and went on to edit Runner's World for decades; the college roommate he trained alongside later became a Boston champion several times over.

Which Maine runner won Boston in 1979 as a relative unknown, then took Olympic gold in 1984?

Joan Benoit won in 1979 as a little-known Bowdoin student. In 1984 she had knee surgery just 17 days before the US Olympic trials, won them anyway and then took the first women's Olympic marathon gold.

Which German woman won Boston in 1994, 1995 and 1996?

Uta Pippig, who had left East Germany in 1990, was ill and badly dehydrated in the 100th race in 1996 yet erased a 30-second deficit to win her third straight title; her 2:21:45 in 1994 was a course record.

Which Kenyan won Boston four times, including 2003 and 2006–2008?

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot beat Cosmas Ndeti's 12-year-old course record by a single second in 2006; that autumn he won Chicago by sliding over the line as he slipped, hitting his head on the road.

Which Kenyan woman won Boston four times and Chicago twice?

Catherine Ndereba won Boston in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005; her 2:18:47 at Chicago in 2001 took the world record from Naoko Takahashi, who had set it in Berlin just a week before.

Why was Geoffrey Mutai's 2:03:02 in 2011 not ratified as a world record?

The course's drop and tailwind disqualify Boston: its net descent exceeds the 1 m per km limit and its point-to-point layout separates start and finish by more than half the race distance, so the IAAF could not ratify it.

Which marathon superstar could only finish sixth when he made his Boston debut in 2023?

Eliud Kipchoge, then the world record holder, missed a water bottle, struggled with a left-leg problem and lost the leaders on the hills, finishing sixth in 2:09:23 as Evans Chebet won.

Which two-word slogan became Boston's rallying cry after the 2013 marathon bombing?

Boston Strong spread as a hashtag within hours of the bombing and was soon on T-shirts, hockey helmets and stadium walls across the city, an expression of its unity.

What kind of homemade devices were detonated in the 2013 attack?

Pressure cooker bombs packed with shrapnel were hidden in backpacks and left among the spectators; the two went off within seconds of each other near the finish line.

Where was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found hiding after the 2013 manhunt?

In a boat in a backyard in Watertown: that evening, after police had searched the area door to door, a resident noticed the cover on his boat was loose, looked inside and found the wounded Tsarnaev.

Which American won the 2014 men's race, the first American man to do so since 1983?

Meb Keflezighi, then 38, won in 2:08:37 with the names of the 2013 victims written on his bib; he had also won New York in 2009 and taken Olympic silver in 2004.

Which American woman won the rain-soaked 2018 race, the first US woman to win in 33 years?

Desiree Linden won through driving rain, high winds and near-freezing cold; seven years earlier, racing as Desiree Davila, she had lost the same race by just two seconds.

Which South African won ten Boston Marathon wheelchair titles between 2001 and 2014?

Ernst van Dyk won ten wheelchair titles between 2001 and 2014; his 2004 course record of just over 1 hour 18 minutes was more than 50 minutes faster than that year's fastest runner.

Who was the first person to officially race the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair?

Bob Hall was promised recognition as an official finisher if he beat a time limit set by the race director; he came home in 2:58, and the wheelchair division grew out of his ride.

Which astronaut ran the 2007 Boston Marathon as an official entrant aboard the ISS?

Sunita Williams, who grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, ran it harnessed to the station's treadmill in about 4 hours 24 minutes, her bib number 14,000 taped to the machine; it was the first marathon run in space.

What replaced the marathon in 1918 because of World War I?

A military relay race took its place: ten-man teams of servicemen covered the marathon course in stages, and the team from Camp Devens in Massachusetts won.

Which mythical animal is the symbol of the Boston Athletic Association?

Unicorn: the B.A.A. adopted it as its emblem in 1890, and by the club's own account nobody now knows why; it is the figure on the medal every Boston finisher takes home.

Which Japanese amateur, then holding a full-time office job, won the storm-lashed men's race at the 2018 Boston Marathon?

Yuki Kawauchi, the 'citizen runner' who worked in a high-school office and trained in his spare time, became Boston's first Japanese men's champion since 1987, then announced he would turn professional.

Which team traditionally plays a late-morning home game on Marathon Monday?

Red Sox games on the day are traditionally timed so that fans leaving Fenway Park can cheer runners through Kenmore Square, a mile from the finish; the morning ballgame has been part of the day for generations.

How did Dick Hoyt complete 32 Boston Marathons with his son Rick?

Pushing him in a wheelchair: Team Hoyt began in 1977, when Rick, who had cerebral palsy, asked his father to run a five-mile benefit race with him and said afterwards that running made him feel he wasn't handicapped.

Roughly how many spectators line the Boston Marathon route each year?

500,000 spectators, by the B.A.A.'s count, line the roads each year, which makes the race New England's most widely viewed sporting event; many hand water and snacks to the runners as they pass.

In which month was the 2021 Boston Marathon eventually run after being moved from April?

October 11, 2021 was the first Boston Marathon ever run in the fall; it came a day after the Chicago Marathon, and Shalane Flanagan ran both on her way to six marathons in six weeks.

What nickname is given to the unregistered runners Boston long tolerated at the back of its field?

Bandits ran without bibs behind the official field and for decades were tolerated, even cheered as folk heroes; the B.A.A. shut them out from 2014, in the security clampdown that followed the bombing.

Where near the finish line is the Boston Marathon Memorial, installed for the 100th running?

Copley Square holds the granite memorial laid for the 100th race, its medallion tracing the course with the winners' names around it; after the 2013 bombing nearby, the square filled with flowers and tributes.

What number appears bib-style on the sleeve of Boston's marathon-inspired City Connect uniform?

617 is Boston's telephone area code; the City Connect kit, first worn in April 2021 around the race weekend, takes its yellow and blue from the marathon and prints the number like a race bib.

How quickly did qualifier places for the 2011 Boston Marathon fill when registration opened in 2010?

About eight hours, a record: the 20,000 qualifier places were gone by the end of the first day, and the rush led the B.A.A. to tighten its standards and let the fastest qualifiers register first.

Which Swiss racer won the men's wheelchair race in 2023 in 1:17:06, then a course record?

Marcel Hug, nicknamed the Silver Bullet for his silver helmet, cut the record again to 1:15:33 in 2024; back in 2016 he had won the Boston and London marathons just six days apart.

Which South Korean set a men's marathon world record of 2:25:39 at Boston in 1947?

Suh Yun-Bok ran 2:25:39 in 1947, the first men's world best ever set at Boston, and the record he broke belonged to his own coach, 1936 Olympic champion Sohn Kee-chung.

Which Ethiopian runner was named 2014 Boston Marathon women's champion after Rita Jeptoo's doping disqualification?

Buzunesh Deba crossed the line second in 2:19:59 and became champion only in 2016, when a doping ban annulled Jeptoo's win; her time stood as the course record until 2025.

Which B.A.A. president barred Korean runners from the 1951 Boston Marathon during the Korean War?

Walter A. Brown, the long-time B.A.A. president who also founded the Boston Celtics, said Koreans should be defending their country rather than training for marathons.

The Japanese troupe Ondekoza ran the 1975 Boston Marathon, then performed what at the finish line?

Taiko drumming was Ondekoza's craft, and long-distance running was part of the troupe's training on Sado Island, so its members ran the race and then played at the finish line.