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Much before the Marathons Boom!, in the 70's, there was Boston. In
1897, inspired by the Olympic Marathon held on the previous year, the Boston
Athletic Club members decided to organize a similar race on the
Patriots' Day. Even the course topography would be similar to the
ancient course from Marathon to Athens.
Fifteen
intrepid runners faced the first challenge in 1987. Ten finished the
race. The winner was John McDermott that ran the 24.5 miles (39, 42 km)
in 2:55:10. Although
few men had the guts to run the marathon in the early years, since the
beginning there was a crow watching the race. In 1902, the Boston Globe
estimated that 100,000 fans watched the marathon.
In
the year of 1909, Boston attracted 164 runners and this number didn't
increased too much in the following decades. The first sign of what
would be the 70's Marathons Boom! was in 1963 due to an article on Sport Illustrated
Magazine about Boston Marathon. In the following year, the race had 369
runners and the number continued to increase until surpass 1,000
participants in 1969.
In
1966, Boston Marathon began to accept female runners. In the first
edition of the female competitions, the winners weren't officially
recognized. Just in 1972 Nina Kuscsik was declared the first Boston
Marathon official female winner with the time of 3:10:26.
In
the early 70's, during the Marathons Boom!, Boston introduced the qualifying
times to take part in the race. However this measure didn't decreased
the number of participants, on the contrary, the qualifying times gave more
status to Boston Marathon. The 1996 edition, celebrating 100 years of
the race, was the biggest marathon in the history with 38,708
participants.
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