The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. 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 men's marathon was a track & field athletics event at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was held on July 19, 1900. 13 athletes from five nations competed in the marathon, which used a distance of 40.26 kilometres.
The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) is a non-profit, running-focused, organized sports association for the Greater Boston area. The B.A.A. hosts such events as the Boston Marathon, the B.A.A. 5K, the B.A.A. 10K, the B.A.A. Half Marathon, the B.A.A. Distance Medley, and the B.A.A. Invitational Mile.
Ronald John MacDonald was a Canadian runner, best known as the winner of the second Boston Marathon in 1898. He later became a successful physician in Nova Scotia.
John Adelbert Kelley was an American long-distance runner who twice represented his native country at the Summer Olympics, in 1936 and 1948, and competed in the Boston Marathon over 50 times, winning in 1935 and 1945. He was often dubbed "Kelley the Elder" to avoid confusion with John J. Kelley, winner of the 1957 Boston Marathon; the two men were not related.
Michael J. Ryan was an American track and field athlete and a member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He was a distance runner and competed in the marathon for the U.S. Olympic team in the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics, but did not finish either race.
Samuel Alexander Mellor Jr. was an American long-distance runner who won the 1902 Boston Marathon and competed in the marathon at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.
John J. McDermott was an Irish-American athlete. Nicknamed "J.J." or "little Mac", he won the first marathon run in the United States in 1896, as well as the inaugural Boston Marathon, then known as the B.A.A. Road Race, in 1897. He was a lithographer by trade.
Lawrence Joseph Brignolia, sometimes Brignoli, was an American long-distance runner and sculler of Italian descent. He won the third running of the Boston Marathon, in 1899. A 161-pound (73 kg) blacksmith, he remains the heaviest person ever to claim victory in the event. He was the only runner to finish each of the first three Boston Marathons, and one of two runners who participated in each of the first four.
The 1970 Boston Marathon took place on Monday, April 20, 1970. It was the 74th time the Boston Marathon was organized, and featured 1,174 official entrants. This was the first edition of the race to have a qualifying standard, as the entry form stipulated "A runner must submit the certification...that he has trained sufficiently to finish the course in less than four hours."
John Duncan Semple was a Scottish-American runner, physical therapist, trainer, and sports official. In 1967, as a race official for the Boston Marathon, he attempted to stop the 20-year-old marathon runner Kathrine Switzer from continuing to run and knocked down her coach when he tried to protect her. Switzer was officially entered in the race in accordance with the Boston Marathon's rule book, which at that time made no mention of sex. Semple subsequently claimed that amateur rules banned women racing for more than 1.5 miles (2.4 km). He subsequently oversaw implementation of qualifying times in 1970 and, in response to lobbying and rule changes by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the implementation of a separate women's race in 1972.
Shigeki Tanaka was a Japanese long-distance runner who won the 1951 Boston Marathon.
The 2014 Boston Marathon took place in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday, April 21. It was the 118th official running of the Boston Marathon, traditionally held on Patriots' Day. The race is organized by the Boston Athletic Association, and has been happening yearly since 1897. On account of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, extra security measures were implemented. They started a safety committee which began meeting in January of each year, as well as had a multi-agency coordination center to provide a place for people to go who were in need of help during the course of the race. New laws included the Post Disaster Mental Health Act were implemented which provides mental health services for places after a disaster even if it is not considered extreme enough to be a Major Disaster. The 2014 Marathon had about 36,000 registered participants, second only to the 1996 race in number of entries.
The 2015 Boston Marathon was the 119th running of the Boston Athletic Association's mass-participation marathon. It took place on Monday, April 20. The men's race was won by Lelisa Desisa from Ethiopia in a time of 2:09:17. Caroline Rotich of Kenya won the women's race with a time 2:24:55.
The 2021 Boston Marathon was the 125th official running of the annual marathon race held in Boston, Massachusetts, and 123rd time it was run on course. It took place on October 11, 2021.
The 2022 Boston Marathon was a marathon race held in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 18, 2022. It was the 126th official running of the race, and 124th time it was run on course. The field was limited to 30,000 runners.
Lee USA Speedway is a short-track oval race track located in Lee, New Hampshire.
The 1897 Boston Marathon was the 1st edition of the marathon race that became known as the Boston Marathon. At the time it was run, the race was not known by a proper name. It took place on April 19, 1897, from Ashland to Boston, Massachusetts, over a distance of 24.5 miles (39.4 km).
The 1901 Boston Marathon was the fifth edition of the marathon race in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It took place on April 19, 1901, from Ashland to Boston. Rather than the modern marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.2 km), the distance was officially 25 miles (40 km), though it was since retroactively measured to be about 23.1–23.9 miles (37.2–38.5 km). About 25,000 spectators lined the course, many of them following and cheering on their preferred runners for significant stretches as they passed.
