For Boston Marathon's last 100 years, it all starts in Hopkinton
HOPKINTON, Mass. (AP) — Workers zip in and out of the tents that dot the Hopkinton Town Common, flags flutter from the gazebo, and crews assemble the platform where the starter will fire the gun to send the Boston Marathon field on its way. On race day, this otherwise sleepy New England town serendipitously located 26.2 miles from Boston will swell to three times its size.
Once a year for the last 100 years, Hopkinton becomes the center of the running world, thanks to a quirk of geography and history that made it the starting line for the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon.
“It wouldn’t be the Boston Marathon without Hopkinton,” said Meb Keflezighi, who was conferred with honorary town citizenship after winning the race in 2014, the year after the finish line bombing. “As the sign says, ‘It all starts here.’”
Although the Boston Marathon was born next door in Ashland, where 15 men toed a line near Metcalf’s Mill in 1897, the start was moved to Hopkinton in 1924 to conform with a new international distance standard. With a field for the 100th anniversary that will top 30,000 runners, the town strains to absorb the crowds and yet still maintains its small-town hospitality year-round.
Related articles
College baseball notebook: Conference tournaments to decide NCAA automatic bids and many at
The field for the NCAA baseball tournament will take shape this week with conference tournaments det2024-05-21Xi's article on putting people first to be published
An article by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee,2024-05-21IOC launches innovative Paris 2024 mobile game
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Tuesday that the official mobile game for the Pa2024-05-21China awards medals to Shenzhou
This undated photo shows Chinese taikonauts Jing Haipeng (C), Zhu Yangzhu (R) and Gui Haichao who ca2024-05-21I was 'brokefished' by my friend for £400
I need your help. My friend K has been recently telling our friendship group about how dire his fina2024-05-21Only 35 Nanjing Massacre survivors remain
Liu Suzhen, one of the Nanjing Massacre survivors, passed away on Sunday at the age of 93, reducing2024-05-21
atest comment