Marathon History

Women were not allowed to run the 42-kilometre Boston Marathon until 1972, when the Boston Marathon began allowing them to compete alongside men. Five years before that, one woman, Kathrine Switzer, tried to enter the race. 6.5 kilometres into the race, the officials noticed her and tried to get her out of the race, but her boyfriend did not let them do it. She did not win the race but was able to finish it in about 4 hours and 20 minutes. In 1974 Switzer won the New York City Marathon in 3 hours, 7 minutes and 29 seconds. 

In 1969 Bill Adcocks, a British long-distance runner, ran the race from the two of Marathon to Athens. He was not a professional runner, so he did not have the training or the right shoes to win the race, but surprisingly he won the race and set an amazing record: 2 hours and 11 minutes. Nobody could run the race faster than him for 35 years. Stefano Baldini, who was a professional Italian runner, broke his record in 2004 by finishing the race in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds.