Boston Marathon
Boston marathon is one of (if not the) most popular marathon in the world as it is the oldest marathon and is held on the 3rd Monday of April every year. The Boston marathon first started in 1897 after the 1896 Summer Olympics which held the first modern day marathon competition. Each year the Boston marathon attracts on average around 200,000 participants every year, with this reaching 38,000 people on the 100th anniversary of the race.
The marathon started as a local event for the people in Boston but its increasing popular lead to it becoming the marathon it is today attracting people from all around the world. When the Boston marathon first began it was a free event and the winner would be awarded with a wreath of woven olive branches, it wasn't until the 1980s when the event started to get sponsorships from businesses and trained athletes had started to refused to win without a cash prize, the first cash prize was given in 1986.
When the marathon first started it was also only a man's race, women weren't allowed to run in the race until 1972. However this didn't stop two women entering the race before this time, in 1966 Roberta Gibbi ran the marathon and is noted as the first women to ever do so, also the following year Kathrine Switzer, who had registered for the race under the name K.V Switzer- to hide her gender, was the first women to run the race with a race number, though half way through the marathon a race official tried to rip the number off her due to her being a women, Kathrine carried on regardless.
Like other marathons, the Boston one now open to men and women from all over the world, however it differs due to participates having to qualify certain standards in order to take part. To take part in the Boston marathon they have to first run a standard marathon course that's registered under the International Association of Athletics Federation, they have to do this 18 months before they run in the Boston race. Also runners aged 18-34 have to run the course within 3 hours 10 minutes.
The course is 26.22 miles long, the race starts at Hopkinton in Massachusetts, it then takes the course of Route 135, taking the runners along the US route 20 in Northborough, the to the east to Interstate 95 in Dedham, this ends means the first 13 miles of the course take the runners from Hopkinton to Wellesley. The course then takes the Route 16 track; this takes the runners along the east west state highway, through the Mystic Valley Parkway, Alewife Brook Parkway and Revere Beach Parkway. It then goes along the Route 30, through Massachusetts Turnpike, then through the city centre of Boston and finishing at Copley Square.
The course is known for being one of the hardest out of all the marathons due to the Newton Hills part of the track. In all there are 4 hills, the first three take you over the Commonwealth Avenue; they lead onto the last hill which takes you over Washington Street crossing the Charles River at the 16 mile mark. The last hill has a 150 foot drop covering a mile and a half of the course, this part of the course has been nicknamed Heartbreak Hill' and many of those taking on the course have been known to walk this bit.
Every year more than 500,000 people come to watch the Boson marathon making it New England's biggest sporting event. People ling the streets with water and snacks for the runners and it have become a tradition for the students at Wellesley College to stand and cheer the runners on when they pass, this has now been nicknames the screen tunnel'. During the race the local team the Boston Red Sox play a home game at the Fenway Park stadium, which finishes before the end of the marathon, so all those watching the game go out and cheer on the runners for the last mile, if you ever run the Boston marathon you will instantly feel the buzz of community spirit around you.
One of the most iconic moments that the Boston marathon has seen is that with father and son, Dick and Rick Hoyt. Rick was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a baby, doctors told his parents that Rick would never be able to have a normal life and that it would best to institutionalize him. However Dick and his wife Judy disagreed, they raised him and after getting a computer device that allowed Rick to communicate with everyone they found out that he had a love for sports. This lead to Dick and Rick taking part in charity runs with Dick pushing Rick in his wheelchair, they then went for marathons and even triathlons in which Dick pull Rick along in a boat during the Swim an carrying him along on the front of his bike in cycles. Team Hoyt celebrated their overall 1000th race with the 2009 Boston marathon , also making it the 27th Boston marathon that they have competed in, with Dick aged 68 and Rick aged 47. As a team they set out to prove that disabled people shouldn't be left in a corner to be forgotten about, instead they should be able to do just as everyone else, and Dick hopes to be able to push his son around the Boston Marathon in 2011 at the grand age of 70. There is no sign of Team Hoyt stopping anytime soon!
Some famous faces have also took on the tough course of the Boston marathon, these include;