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Boston Marathon: The History of the World's Premier Running Event By Tom Derderian. Champaign, IL, 1994 (Hana Kinetics Publishers, Champaign, IL, 1994). $21.95 in paper.
Boston. The running community gives special meaning to the name. The twenty-six mile three hundred eighty-five yard trek from Hopkinton to Boston helps to make the Massachusetts holiday of Patriots Day so unique. Derderian's history is a commemoration of the race, which celebrated its centennial in 1996. The book focuses on each race, its participants and the events which surrounded the Marathon, all of which make the book an interesting study of Boston, Massachusetts, and the United States.
An introduction by Boston champions Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit Samuelson sets the stage for the reader by emphasizing the importance of the Boston Marathon and how Derderian's history makes the reader eager to participate. Derderian himself states this goal as one of his reasons for writing.
"I wrote the book for three groups of people: those who have run or tried the Boston Marathon or any other; scholars, academics, and fans who want to find the whole Boston Marathon in one place; and runners who are training for the next Boston Marathon.
For readers in that last group, I hope every story will propel you out the door for a rapid training run" (xi).
Derderian then proceeds to list his...