Amateur and professional runners from all over the world compete in the Boston Marathon each year, braving the hilly Massachusetts terrain and varying weather to take part in the race.

[7] On April 19, 1897, ten years after the establishment of the B.A.A., the association held the 24.5 miles (39.4 km) marathon to conclude its athletic competition, the B.A.A.

The event was scheduled for the recently established holiday of Patriots' Day, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty.

The course was lengthened to 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to conform to the standard set by the 1908 Summer Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.

For most of its history, the Boston Marathon was a free event, and the only prize awarded for winning the race was a wreath woven from olive branches.

[16] Nor did the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) exclude women from races that included men until after the 1967 Boston Marathon.

[18] Gibb nevertheless ran unregistered and finished the 1966 race in three hours, twenty-one minutes and forty seconds,[19] ahead of two-thirds of the runners.

[24][25] In 1905, James Edward Brooks of North Adams, Massachusetts, died of pneumonia shortly after running the marathon.

[29] Although this was the fastest marathon ever run at the time, the International Association of Athletics Federations noted that the performance was not eligible for world record status given that the course did not satisfy rules that regarded elevation drop and start/finish separation (the latter requirement being intended to prevent advantages gained from a strong tailwind, as was the case in 2011).

[31] According to the Boston Herald, race director Dave McGillivray said he was sending paperwork to the IAAF in an attempt to have Mutai's mark ratified as a world record.

[35] In 2015, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the bombing, was found guilty of 30 federal offenses in connection with the attack and was sentenced to death.

[36][37] Bizunesh Deba of Ethiopia was eventually named women's winner of the 2014 Boston Marathon, following the disqualification of Kenyan Rita Jeptoo from the event due to confirmed doping.

While our goal and our hope was to make progress in containing the virus and recovering our economy, this kind of event would not be responsible or realistic on September 14 or any time this year.

announced that the 2021 edition of the marathon would not be held in April; organizers stated that they hoped to stage the event later in the year, possibly in the autumn.

[50] In late January 2021, organizers announced October 11 as the date for the marathon, contingent upon road races being allowed in Massachusetts at that time.

[52] The race was the fourth of the five World Marathon Majors held in 2021; all the events in the series were run in the space of six weeks between late September and early November.

[60][61] This leads many runners to find intrinsic motivation in qualifying for the elusive marathon by setting the specific, time-based, and difficult goals associated with the age-based time standard.

About one-fifth of the marathon's spots are reserved each year for charities, sponsors, vendors, licensees, consultants, municipal officials, local running clubs, and marketers.

[59] In addition to lowering qualifying times, the change includes a rolling application process, which gives faster runners priority.

The next year the starting times for the race were moved up, allowing runners to take advantage of cooler temperatures and enabling the roads to be reopened earlier.

The race runs through eight Massachusetts cities and towns: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston.

It is the last of four "Newton hills", which begin at the 16-mile (26 km) mark and challenge contestants with late (if modest) climbs after the course's general downhill trend to that point.

Starting in 2017, handcyclists are honored the same way runners and wheelchair racers are: with wreaths, prize money, and the playing of the men's and women's winners' national anthems.

[99] The Boston Marathon Memorial in Copley Square, which is near the finish line, was installed to mark the one-hundredth running of the race.

While doctors said that Rick would never have a normal life and thought that institutionalizing him was the best option, Dick and his wife disagreed and raised him at home.

Eventually, a computer device was developed that helped Rick communicate with his family, and they learned that one of his biggest passions was sports.

[115] For decades, these unofficial runners were treated like local folk heroes, celebrated for their endurance and spunk for entering a contest with the world's most accomplished athletes.

Race amenities along the course and at the finish, such as fluids, medical care, and traffic safety, are provided based on the number of expected official entrants.

Old North Church is where the signal was lit that set Paul Revere off on his midnight ride, which is commemorated each year on the same day as the Marathon.

During the 2014 marathon, runners and spectators were discouraged from wearing "costumes covering the face or any non-form fitting, bulky outfits extending beyond the perimeter of the body," for security reasons following the 2013 bombing.