Athletes and spectators experience the worst moment in the 125-year history of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Two bombs explode on the side of the race course, killing three people and injuring hundreds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year later, more runners and spectators come than ever before to make one thing clear: the legend continues, the oldest marathon outside the Olympic Games continues to make history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The majority of the first American Olympic team came from the Boston Athletic Society,” says marathon historian Tom Grilk in a TED Talk. That was in Athens in 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games. The athletes from the USA are so enthusiastic that they organize the first marathon in Boston a year later: with 15 participants, ten of whom finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This turns into a spectacular big event. “The event flushes 200 million dollars into the local economy, 40 million in donations are raised,” says Grilk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many stories from these 125 years. For example, that one is not sure whether runners can survive such a distance. After all, the original marathon runner also died around 2,500 years ago: “Every runner got a cyclist at his side to accompany him if he should collapse.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women were only allowed to run in 1972, ie 50 years ago. But Bobbi Gibb made her protest a success as early as 1966: She hid in the bushes at the start, just ran along and managed the whole distance. “For me, running was the quintessence of life,” she later says in a video. The next year, stewards try to force Kathrine Switzer off the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there is this woman: She appeared out of nowhere in 1980 and won the marathon in what was then a sensational two hours and 31 minutes. But Rosi Ruiz cheated – she secretly went out on the track with less than two kilometers to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to 2013. One of the survivors of the bombing is dancer Adrianne Haslet. She lost a leg. This year she will run the Boston Marathon with the support of Olympic runner Shalane Flanagan. “Even more than a race, it’s a celebration of life and the human spirit,” she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Registered runners from Russia and Belarus will not take part. They were expelled after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russians and Belarusians living abroad are allowed to participate – but without the respective national flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 28,000 runners from 120 nations compete in the 126th Boston Marathon. The attack nine years ago failed to stop the oldest non-Olympic marathon. Athletes and spectators experience the worst moment in the 125-year history of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Two bombs explode on the side of the race course, killing three people …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":68707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}