April 19, 1897: The 1st Boston Marathon

April 19, 1897: The 1st Boston Marathon is held. The winner is John McDermott, a 23-year-old New Yorker. 

This was in the wake of the most popular event of the 1st modern Olympic Games, held the year before in Athens, Greece. It celebrated the Battle of Marathon, in 490 BC, when a united army from several Greek city-states defeated a larger force from the Persian Empire, ending that empire's best chance at conquering Greece.

Legend has it that a courier named Pheidippides ran from Marathon all the way back to Athens, and told the governing archons, "Joy, we win!" Or, depending on your translation, "Rejoice, we conquer!" And then he dropped dead. The exact date of the battle has been lost to history, but it's thought to have been in August or September, and Greece is in the Mediterranean. Whether or not Pheidippides was just a courier, or a soldier wearing armor for the entire run, depends on who's telling the story.

The distance from Marathon to Athens is about 25 miles, and a statue of Pheidippides now stands on the highway between the cities, at about the halfway mark. At the 1908 Olympics in London, the race started at Windsor Castle, home of King Edward VII, and ended at the King's box at the Shepherd's Bush Stadium in West London. That distance was 26 miles, 385 yards, and that has been the official distance for marathon races ever since.

These days, several American cities have marathons, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. But Boston was the 1st city to run one regularly. They hold it annually on the 3rd Monday in April, which is celebrated as Patriots Day in New England, to celebrate the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

(Don't ask me to do a "Scores On This Historic Day" post for that day. The British Army, having instituted martial law, had all the day's sporting events canceled.)

The course starts at the Town Common in the suburb of Hopkinton, and goes through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline, before finishing in front of the Boston Public Library at Copley Square.

The 4 "Newton Hills" begin at around 16 miles. The last of them is "Heartbreak Hill," between the 20-mile and 21-mile marks, near Boston College. At this point in a marathon, the additional elevation of 88 feet is enough to tire marathoners, and is the source of the expression "hitting the wall."

On Marathon Day, the Red Sox play a home game at Fenway Park, starting at 11:05 AM, with the idea that fans would clear the area before the runners come down Boylston Street.

Women began to be allowed to officially run in 1972. The 2013 Marathon was attacked by a pair of terrorist brothers. And COVID restrictions canceled the 2020 edition and postponed the 2021 edition to October. In non-COVID years, the Marathon attracts about 30,000 participants and 500,000 spectators.

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April 19, 1897 was, as is tradition, a Monday. And the Boston team of the time, the Boston Beaneaters of the National League, that team that would become the Braves in 1912, played at home. They hosted the Philadelphia Phillies at the South End Grounds, the 3rd ballpark with that name. The Phillies won, 6-5. It was the opening game of a season that would see the Beaneaters win the Pennant anyway. No other games were played.