The Boston Marathon, one of the six World Marathon Majors, is a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race which has been held in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts since 1897, making it the oldest annual marathon in the world.
The event is held on Patriots' Day, which was April 19 (or April 20 if April 19 was a Sunday) until the implementation of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971. Since 1971, except in 2020 (race not held) or 2021 (Columbus Day holiday), the Boston Marathon is held on the third Monday in April. Various factors meant that until 1957 the course varied in length, due to which the marathon recognizes several course records that are slower than previous records due to being run on longer courses.[1][2] The first Boston Marathon included only 15 runners, all of whom were men, and was won by John McDermott.[1] The race was cancelled twice, in 1918 because of World War I, where a ekiden-style relay was conducted of military teams, and in 2020, when Massachusetts authorities refused to allow the event to be conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] The winners have represented 27 different countries: Americans have won the marathon the most, doing so on 108 occasions; Kenyans have won 34 times; and Canadians 21 times. Ernst van Dyk is the most successful individual athlete, having won the men's wheelchair division ten times. The current course records are held by Geoffrey Mutai, Buzunesh Deba, Marcel Hug and Manuela Schär.
Clarence DeMar won the men's open race seven times, more than any other runner, achieving his first victory in 1911 and his last in 1930.[4] Women were only officially allowed to run the race beginning in 1972, though female runners had unofficially participated beginning in 1966 despite breaching the rules of the Amateur Athletic Union.[1] The first six victories in the women's open division, between 1966 and 1971, were officially recognized in 1996. Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to finish the race in 1966,[5] while Nina Kuscsik was the first official winner in 1972.[1]Catherine Ndereba's four victories between 2000 and 2005 are the most in the women's open division.[4] The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include a wheelchair division, in 1975, which was won by Robert Hall,[1] though the first person to complete the race in a wheelchair had been Eugene Roberts in 1970.[6] The first female wheelchair finisher, Sharon Rahn, came in 1977. Ernst van Dyk's ten wins in the men's wheelchair division are the most of any athlete at Boston, while Jean Driscoll leads the women's wheelchair division with seven wins, and holds the overall record for the most consecutive victories, also seven.[4] A handcyclist division was recognized for the first time in 2017, though handcyclists had been taking part prior to that.[7]Tom Davis has won the first three men's handcyclist races since it was officially recognized in 2017, and still holds the course record as of 2024. Alicia Dana has won the women's handcycle race three times, as of 2024, and set a course record each time.
The course was designed to replicate the original marathon in Greece; a hilly point-to-point race, and as such has not been the venue for many world records.[a]Suh Yun-bok set the only World Athletics-ratified men's open division world record in 1947, in a time of 2:25:39.[9][8] Two apparent world record times set between 1951 and 1956 by Keizo Yamada and Antti Viskari were later struck when the course was found to be over 1,000 yards (910 m) short.[10][11] In 1975, Liane Winter took advantage of a 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) following wind to set a world record in the women's open race of 2:42:24,[12] and eight years later, Joan Benoit beat a world record that had only been set the day before at the London Marathon, finishing in 2:22:43.[9] Since 1990, the Boston Marathon has been ineligible for world records, as the start and finish are too far away from each other, and the race is a net downhill.[13] In 2011, Geoffrey Mutai won the race in 2:03:02, which was the world's fastest time for the marathon, beating the official world record by 57 seconds.[14]
Winners
All Editions Results
Key
Men's open division
Women's open division
Men's wheelchair division
Women's wheelchair division
Men's handcycle division
Women's handcycle division
Victories by nationality
Notes and references
Notes
^World records for road races set before 2004 were retrospectively recognised by the IAAF (now World Athletics), and were not officially recognised before that time.[8]
^Since 1990, the Boston Marathon has been ineligible for world records, as the start and finish are too far away from each other, and the race is a net downhill.[13]
^Geoffrey Mutai's winning time in 2011 of 2:03:02 beat the world record by 57 seconds, making it the fastest marathon time recorded at the time.[14] It remained the fastest time until Dennis Kimetto set an official world record of 2:02:57 at the 2014 Berlin Marathon.[15]
^Wheelchair racers set off 15 minutes ahead of the other participants.
^Since 1949, Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany). All German athletes that won Boston during the era from 1945 to 1990 represented Bundesrepublik Deutschland, known colloquially as West Germany in English. The unified Germany remains officially Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
^Athlete represented the former Yugoslavia, which is recognised as Serbia today.
^Huebsch, Tim (April 18, 2016). "Boston Marathon celebrates 50 years of female participation". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^Connelly, Michael (2014). 26.2 Miles to Boston: A Journey into the Heart of the Boston Marathon. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7627-9635-9.
^"B.A.A. to Implement Changes to Boston Marathon Handcycle Program". Boston Athletic Association. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
^ a bButler, Mark, ed. (2011). 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics – IAAF Statistics Handbook – Daegu 2011 (PDF). IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. pp. 612, 614, 707. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ a bPowers, John (April 13, 2012). "Famous record-setting marathon runs". Boston Globe. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ a bBroadbent, Rick (2016). Endurance: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Emil Zátopek. London: Bloomsbury. p. 211. ISBN 978-1-4729-2022-5.
^ a bBenyo, Richard; Henderson, Joe (2002). Running Encyclopedia. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-7360-3734-1.
^Peters, Gil (April 22, 1975). "New Marathon mark". The Bryan Times. United Press International. p. 12. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
^ a bBird, Hayden (March 18, 2019). "Why a world record set in the Boston Marathon wouldn't officially count". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
^ a bMay, Peter (April 18, 2011). "Kenyan Runs Fastest Marathon in Boston". The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
^Fahey, Ciaran (September 28, 2014). "Dennis Kimetto sets new world record at Berlin Marathon beating Wilson Kipsang by 16 seconds". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
^ a b"Leaderboard". Boston Athletic Association. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021.
^Golen, Jimmy; Shafner, Rhonda (August 9, 2019). "Rosie Ruiz, The Woman Who Rode The Green Line To Boston Marathon Infamy". wgbh.org. Associated Press. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
^Yang, Nicole (April 13, 2017). "These Boston Marathon course records are waiting to be broken". Boston Globe Media Partners. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
^"IAAF Appeal Upheld – Rita Jeptoo Suspended for Four Years by The Court of Arbitration For Sport" (PDF). tas-cas.org. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
^ a b"Leaderboard (2021 WC)". Boston Athletic Association. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
^Tenorio, Rich (April 12, 2018). "Manuela Schar Is Ready To Defend Her Boston Title And World Record". Women's Running. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
^"Manuela Schar Wins Fourth Boston Marathon Women's Wheelchair Race". CBS Boston. April 18, 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
^ a b"The Boston Marathon, Leaderboard - Handcycle". The Boston Marathon. October 11, 2021. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
^ a bGavin, Christopher (April 18, 2022). "These are the winners of the 2022 Boston Marathon". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
^ a bDoyle, Peyton (April 17, 2023). "Zachary Stinson and Alicia Dana take Boston Marathon handcycle titles: Dana set a course record for women's handcycling". Boston.com. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
^ a b"2024 Boston Marathon winners: Who won the men's and women's races". Draft Kings Network. 2024-04-14. Retrieved 2024-04-14.