Boston Marathon 2023: Records, stats and top facts

Boston Marathon year-by-year

1897

The Boston Marathon was first run in April 1897 making it the world’s oldest annual marathon.

The race was established to commemorate Patriots’ Day, a holiday marked on the third Monday of April each year in a handful of states including Massachusetts, with the course designed to copy the original marathon in Greece, a hilly point-to-point race.

1924

The Boston Athletic Association moved the event start from Ashland to Hopkinton and lengthened the course from 39.4km (24.5 miles) to 42.195km (26.36 miles) to conform to the IAAF standards, based on the 1908 Olympic marathon.

1967

Kathy Switzer, who had registered as K.V. Switzer, was issued an official number and became the first female finisher of the race despite organisers trying to remove her once they realised she was not a man.

A year earlier, Bobbi Gibb had unofficially completed the race by hiding at the start and joining the crowds of male runners.

1972

In the 1972 edition, Boston became the first marathon to allow women to compete. Eight women finished the inaugural women’s race won by Nina Kuscsik.

1975

The Boston Marathon became the first race to include a wheelchair category.

1990

In 1990, the Boston Marathon was deemed ineligible for world records due to the start and finish being too far apart and the course's excessively downhill profile.

Unlike in Olympic marathons, the runners go point-to-point rather than in a loop.

The course elevation sees runners going down 140m over the 42km course, an average of 3.33m per km which contravenes the World Athletics requirement of "not exceeding an average of one metre per kilometre".

2013

While the Boston Marathon was still in progress, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three spectators and injuring over 200. The race was stopped and many of the competitors were unable to finish the race.

2020

The only year that the road race has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A virtual race took place instead.

2022

Last year, Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir won in Boston to become the first athlete to complete a career treble of Olympic**,** New York City and Boston marathons.

Fascinating figures

4

With four victories at the Boston Marathon, Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Marathon silver medallist, has the highest number of wins in the elite women’s category.

10

Ernst van Dyk is the most successful athlete in the history of the Boston Marathon, winning the men’s wheelchair category 10 times.

15

The first ever Boston Marathon included only 15 men and was won by John McDermott in 2:55:10 over 39.4km (24.5 miles).

108

American runners have the most wins - 108 -  while Kenyans have been the most successful foreign athletes with 38 Boston Marathon victories.

30,000

The average number of runners who compete in the race annually. In 1996, the Boston Marathon registered 38,708 entrants, which went down as a record for the world’s largest marathon at the time.

Fastest times

2:25:39

The only ratified men’s world record on the Boston course, set in 1947 by South Korean runner Suh Yun-bok.

2:42:24

Liane Winter’s winning time in 1975 was recorded as a women’s world record, though it remains disputed as she was running with a tail wind.

2:03:02

The fastest time for the Boston Marathon is held by Kenya’s 2011 winner Geoffrey Mutai. It was, at that time, the fastest time ever recorded in a men’s marathon compared to Haile Gebrselassie’s world record 2:03.59 from 2008 in Berlin. But Mutai’s time was not recognised as a world record as he was assisted by a tailwind on a course with a n excessive drop in elevation.

Boston Marathon times are often found on world’s best lists, but not world records due to its point-to-point layout.