Boston Marathon

Now in its 112th year, the Boston Marathon has become the stuff of legends. Spoken of with reverence and awe, its hills break the hearts of veteran runners. There’s nothing quite like saying you’ve run Boston.

There are the students at Wellesley College who cheer for you as if their graduation depended on it. And there’s also the prestige. Not just any marathon runner can get a number. You have to qualify for this one, unless you run it for a charity, which thousands of people do, raising more than $7 million every year. It’s the showcase of the elite, and a qualifying race for this year’s Olympic Games.

It’s not flat, and for many, it certainly isn’t fast. But it is special. Every inch of the course — from the start in Hopkinton, Mass., to the finish line on Boston’s Boylston Street — is lined with supporters, and with one of the most grueling gradations of any marathon course in the world, that support is much appreciated.  When the runners cross the finish line on April 21, they’ll know they’ve just done something special.

Boston became the first marathon to sponsor wheelchair competition, in 1975.

» $575,000
The total prize money split among the winners of the 111th Boston Marathon, in 2007.

» 1,100
More than 1,100 members of the media, from 250 different organizations, make this the second most covered single-day sporting event in the world, following the Super Bowl.

» 500,000
Approximately 500,000 spectators line the 26.2-mile course annually, making it the most widely watched sport event in New England.

» 18
The number of entrants for the first Boston Marathon, held on April 19, 1897. Fifteen runners actually started the race, and 10 finished.

» 1975
Boston becomes the first marathon to sponsor wheelchair competition

The Young at Heart sculpture at the base of Heartbreak Hill pays tribute to this Boston Marathon legend who started the race 61 times and finished it 58 times. He won it in 1935 and 1945; in 1992, at a youthful 84, he ran it for the last time.

Kathrine Switzer attempts to outrun some unhappy spectators in 1967.

» Roberta Gibb was the first woman to run the full Boston Marathon, in 1966. She did not have an official number but instead hid in the bushes and jumped in when the race started.

» Kathrine Switzer got herself a number in 1967 when she avoided identifying her gender on her application, cleverly signing her form “K.V. Switzer.” Race officials attempted to remove her from the course, but she outran them.

» On April 17, 1972, Nina Kuscsik became the first woman to officially win Boston, after the Amateur Athletics Union formally sanctioned female participants.

For a 34-year-old woman to qualify to run Boston, she’d need to cruise through 26.2 miles in
3 hours, 40 minutes.

» The Start, Hopkinton, Mass. If you can get close to the starting line, the thousands of runners stretching and praying are a great sight.

» Mile 10, Natick Center. Runners are hitting their stride at this point, and there’s a lovely town common with a bakery nearby, in case watching all this exertion makes you hungry.

» Mile 13.1, The half-marathon point, Wellesley. Watch in the square and you can still hear the Wellesley College students cheering.

» Mile 20.5, Heartbreak Hill. This is where your encouragement will be most appreciated. Runners are losing steam here, and all the training in the world doesn’t help flatten this pace-ruining stretch of the route.

» Mile 25.2, Kenmore Square. You’ll actually find standing room here, around the corner from Fenway Park, as opposed to the finish line, where it’s too packed to see the runners. And since they have only a mile to go, you might actually see runners smiling.