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Run’s House

An unknown "museum" devoted to the Boston Marathon

runshouse

T

he world’s oldest annual marathon, the Boston Marathon has its own “museum” of sorts, tracing the colorful history of the race all the way back to the origins of long-distance running itself: the day the Greek Pheidippides purportedly ran from ancient Marathon to Athens to deliver the report, “Rejoice! We conquer,” and dropped dead. For its part, the Boston Marathon was run for the first time in 1897, a year after a contingent from the Boston Athletic Association returned from competing in the first modern Olympics, held in Greece. Of course, few modern sports require less equipment than marathon running, and the exhibits, on display in the adidas RunBase store on the marathon’s home stretch consist mostly of photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, T-shirts, trophies and running shoes. But what owners: Johnny Miles, Johnny Kelley, Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and others. There is even a bronzed pair of Kelley’s Size 8 running shoes.

whonew2

 
 

Boston’s may be the oldest marathon in the United States, but it was not the first. Seven months before the first Boston Marathon, on September 19, 1896, 30 runners competed in a race from Stamford, Connecticut, to Manhattan.