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Posted by Stevie V on January 14, 2008, 4:10 pm, in reply to "north americas first marathon"
If you look back at results from the late 1800's and early 1900's, there were a number of meets in September and even later. There seemed to be far less segmented indoor and outdoor seasons. I found a clipping from a Boston paper from October 1890's, and there was an indoor meet announced that early in the season; it was noted to be on the largest track in the area, a spacious 11 laps to the mile
Meets were held with summer festivals all throught the summer, not like nowadays when there is hardly a track and field competition except for a few youth competitions after mid-July.
Steve Vaitones
--Previous Message--
: I have always been a bit curious so spent a
: little time trying to see if I could find
: the route for the 1896 marathon (Sept 20
: 1896) from Stamford CT to NYC. Nearly
: everything online (and in history books)
: says that it finished at Columbus Circle
: which turns out NOT to be true at all. I
: found archival newspaper information (NY
: Times) that gave the approximate route. It
: started at the armory in Stamford (which
: was/is on Summer St.). The 30 participants
: took a train from NYC at 10:03, it was a
: pouring rainstorm in the morning but the
: race started at 12:26 with 2000 spectators
: at the starting line. The route was
: naturally unpaved and was apparently a
: quagmire of sorts from the rain. It was
: described as hilly. The paper gave the
: intermediate towns along the way and it
: seems likely that the course followed the
: Boston Post Rd (Rt. 1) most or all of the
: way. As I mentioned, the race did not finish
: at Columbus Circle. Instead it finished at
: an athletic field called the Columbia Oval
: (in the Bronx) which apparently was the
: facilty used by Columbia Univ and the
: community at large. There was an afternoon
: track meet (in Sept?) during that day which
: was interrupted to accomodate a highlight of
: the day, the finish of the marathon. It was
: apparently a big draw and a real sensation,
: with several thousand spectators on-hand.
: It was described as a 25 mile run with one
: (or more) lap(s) around the track at the
: finish. Anyway, given what I as able to find
: and using the USTAF running route website to
: unearth as much of the original route as
: possible, I was able to find a route that
: must be close the the course. I included any
: parallel "old-Boston Post Rd.
: sections" where identifiable. My route
: is a bit over 24 miles. Given the
: straightening, paving, flattening and
: widening of roads it is probably close to
: the original route. If you check the
: elevations changes in this course as
: indicated on the USTAF site, it was
: undoubtedly a toughie. The BAA course must
: have been seen as a pancake course vs. this
: one. I'm not surprised the original NY race
: only lasted a year given how hard it was.
: I've had my Vespa out and on about 90% of
: this route a few times and am curious to
: take a look at the rest of it when spring
: comes.
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