Hopkinton: The Starting Line for Boston Marathon's Last 100 Years

FILE - Jonathon Hawkins, left, and Beth Millian, right, both from Austin, Texas, pose for a photo by the Boston Marathon start sign prior to the 115th running of the Boston Marathon , in Hopkinton , Mass., Monday, April 18, 2011. 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 theAlthough 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.

The idea of a marathon race was born from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger who ran to Athens to deliver news of the victory over the invading Persians in the Battle of Marathon.when it was held in Athens in 1896. A traveling party from the Boston Athletic Association was so taken with the spectacle that they created a copycat race back home the following year.

Informational plaques in Ashland’s Marathon Park tell the story of the race’s first 27 years. A granite boulder marks the original starting line.Although there were six different marathon distances in the first seven Olympics, for the 1924 Games in Paris, the course was set at the 26 mile, 385 yard distance . To accommodate the new standard, the BAA moved its start to Hopkinton, one town west.

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