This coming April 17th marks not only Patriot’s Day and, so, the 127th running of the Boston Marathon, but also 100 years since the epic race's start in… Ashland.
Say, what?
Make that the anniversary of the last time the Marathon began in Hopkinton’s neighbor to the east. Between the race's inauguration in 1897 and 1923, it and other marathons were, in a manner of speaking, all over the map. That first Boston Marathon – also known then as the ‘American Marathon’– measured 24.5 miles, running from Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland to the Irvington Oval in Boston.
The length was based on the first modern Olympic Games’ (1896)
marathon distance of 24.8 miles – the distance Pheidippides, in 490 B.C.,
reputedly ran from the plains of Marathon to Athens with news of the Athenians’ victory over the Persians. While he helped to save democracy, Pheidippides, alas, was less fortunate himself. He’s said to have collapsed and expired upon delivering the news – a story most marathoners conveniently ignore but, anyway, one that’s also apocryphal, as historians now note.
The distance of a marathon was then tweaked for the 1908 Olympic
Games in London. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria wanted the race to begin at Windsor Castle so the royal family could watch the start. As the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) reports, “The distance between the castle and the Olympic Stadium in London proved to be 26 miles. Organizers added extra yards to the finish around a track, 385 to be exact, so the runners would finish in front of the king and queen’s royal box.”
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