Fast Facts On The Boston Marathon

Finish line image courtesy of www.twenty20.com

It's that time of year when running fanatics around the world turn to Boston to watch one of the oldest and most prestigious running races in the world take place.

If your looking to qualify for Boston, feel free to see my previous post on the subject

But today to celebration the event and make a shout out to everyone taking on the race, I thought it would be a good idea to put together 10 fast facts about the Boston Marathon.

1. The Boston Marathon is one of the oldest marathons in the world as it was first held in 1897, making it the oldest marathon in the USA. This year is the 122nd running of the marathon.

2. The race coincides with Patriots Day a public holiday held in Massachusetts and Maine, and in 1969 when the date of the national holiday was changed to the third Monday in April, the date of the race was also changed.

3. Women were not officially allowed to race the Boston Marathon until 1972, but in 1969 Katrin Switzer received a race number by entering under the name of K.V. Switzer. Even though she wore baggy clothes to try and disguise herself, running the race caused controversy, but her run is said to have paved the way for the eventual inclusion of women into the sport: http://www.espn.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/7803502/2012-boston-marathon-how-kathrine-switzer-paved-way-female-runners

4. It is well known for being a fast marathon as the median time of the race being 3 hours and 44 minutes.

5. The marathon is run by the Boston Athletic Association. When the association started in 1887, their mission statement was "encourage all manly sports and promote physical culture." When they held their first race, it was a 24.5 run miles with 15 starters, on that day only 10 made it to the finish line.

6. We've discussed qualifying for the Boston Marathon previously, but a majority of runners, once qualified for the race will earn a BQ by then running Boston itself and will continue to do so year after year.

7. If you're looking for a little support out on course you will probably like to hear that the Boston Marathon draws a crowd of over 500,000 supporters along the course.

8. In 1996 the 100th Boston Marathon was run, and on the same year a record 35,868 runners finished the race.

9. In 1987 the rope that prevents runners from crossing the start line early was not removed in time and an elite runner was tripped over as a result. Since then the rope has been replaced by a human chain of volunteers who move just before the starting pistol is fired.

10. If you are looking to finish fast the race record is held by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, who ran 2 hours, 3 minutes and 22 seconds in the 2011 running of the race.

My latest updated to the @runningproject is all about the "Run Walk Marathon Race Strategies", so feel free to look it up below:
https://steemit.com/runningproject/@runningproject/run-walk-marathon-strategy-by-runningproject

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