Bottom Of The Barrel

Now serving number 23005

Twenty Three Thousand and Five. That's my bib number for the Boston Marathon, which [for me] gets under way at 10:30 am on Monday morning. For those of you not coming out to the race itself, you can use this page to track my progress from Main Street in Hopkinton to Copley Square in Boston - 26.2 miles.

The length of a marathon was not fixed at first, since the only important factor was that all athletes competed on the same course. It was the marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London that permanently set our modern day distance. The 1908 race was set to measure about 25 miles (40 km) and to start on The Long Walk – a magnificent avenue leading up to Windsor Castle in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. The Princess of Wales wanted her children to watch the start of the race, so the start of the race was moved to the east lawn of Windsor Castle, increasing its length to 26 miles (42 km). The race was to finish at the Great White City Stadium in Shepherd's Bush in London; however, Queen Alexandra insisted on having the best view of the finish; so, in the words of the official Olympic report, "385 yards were run on the cinder track to the finish, below the Royal Box". The length then became 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards).

So a big thank you to the Princess of Wales and Queen Alexandra for the last 1 mile and 385 yards of The Long Walk.

Labels: Running

posted by TheWino @ 9:51 AM