The Boston Marathon was first run on Patriots' Day, April 19, 1897, after competing Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) athletes returned from the 1896 Modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, with the idea of bringing the marathon to their B.A.A. Games in Boston, Mass.

The oldest continually run marathon in the world has witnessed the famous and the infamous, national and world records, triumphs and heartaches, and is hailed as the greatest of them all.