Boston Marathon 2024: Half a million fans line the streets on Patriots’ Day for the 128th edition of the historic race… with NFL legend Rob Gronkowski waiting for 30,000 runners at the finish line
Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski waits at the finish line of the 30,000 runners participating in Monday’s Boston Marathon.
All 50 US states – and nearly 130 countries – were represented in the 128th edition of the historic race, with around 500,000 fans expected to line the streets of Boston.
The action started around 9 ET with the men’s and women’s wheelchair races before the elite runners hit the roads half an hour later.
So, at 10 ET Monday, the crowd of amateur runners began the 16.2-mile journey from Hopkinton to the finish line on Boylston Street.
At the end of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon, the former NFL tight end Gronkowski was waiting. The 34-year-old spent nearly a decade in New England, winning three Super Bowls alongside Tom Brady with the Patriots.
Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper crosses the finish line to win the women’s wheelchair race
At the end of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon, former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski was waiting
Around 500,000 supporters are expected to line the streets of Boston for the historic race
Former New England Patriots tight end Gronkowski was named the race’s ‘grand marshal’
Around 10 a.m. ET Monday, the crowd of amateur runners began the 26.2-mile journey
Gronkowski was named the ‘grand marshal’ for the race, after winning the 2024 Patriots’ Award. He was seen holding the trophy – and throwing a football – early Monday morning.
“We couldn’t ask for a better day,” he said before climbing into an electric car that carried him along the course. ‘The city of Boston always comes out to support, no matter the event. The weather is perfect, the energy is jumping.’
Security was tight in Boston, and this year’s race marks 11 years since the tragic bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds more.
The Patriots’ Day race also fell on One Boston Day, when the city commemorates the victims of the 2013 tragedy. At the finish line on Boylston Street, bagpipes accompanied Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and members of the victims’ families as they laid a pair of wreaths at the blast sites .
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia secured the lead in the men’s race on Monday morning
The Swiss Marcel Hug secured a sixth victory in the men’s wheelchair race – in record time
Yuma Morii of Japan pulls away from the pack during the men’s elite race in Boston
Swiss athlete Marcel Hug and English athlete Eden Rainbow Cooper hold a trophy after finishing first in the professional men’s and women’s wheelchair field
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia leads the pack during the 2024 Boston Marathon
In early action, Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women’s wheelchair race, while Switzerland’s Marcel Hug recovered after crashing into a barrier before cruising to a sixth victory in the men’s race – in a track record time.
Hug already had a four-minute lead around 18 miles when he reached the landmark firehouse turn in Newton. He tumbled into the fence and flipped sideways, but quickly got back on track.
He finished in 1 hour, 15 minutes and 33 seconds – beating his previous record by 1:33 and winning his 14th consecutive major marathon and his 24th overall.
The festivities began around 6 a.m. when race director Dave McGillivray sent off about 30 Massachusetts National Guard members.
The otherwise sleepy New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversary as the starting line, sending a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners on their way.
Near the target on Boylston Street, officials observed the anniversary of the 2013 bombing that killed three and injured hundreds more.
Elite female runners break from the starting line for the Boston Marathon
The 34-year-old spent nearly a decade in New England, winning three Super Bowls alongside Tom Brady with the Patriots
Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure cooker bombs went off at the marathon finish line.
Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.
During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot and killed in his car. Boston police officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.
Mayor Michelle Wu, Governor Maura Healey and family members of Boston Marathon bombing victims lay wreaths at a memorial site on Boylston Street on the eleventh anniversary of the attack
In 2013, three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure cooker bombs went off at the Boston Marathon finish line
Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died
Police captured a bloodied and injured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died.
Tsarnaev had been in a shootout with police and was run over by his brother as he fled.
“I think we’re all still living with those tragic days 10 years ago,” Bill Evans, the former Boston police commissioner, said recently.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death, and much of the attention in recent years has been around his attempts to avoid being executed.
The bombing not only united Boston – ‘Boston Strong’ became the city’s rallying cry – but inspired many in the running community, prompting dozens of those affected by the terror attack to run marathons.