Forums >Racing>Early 1900s Marathons in Maryland/DC
Some interesting marathon history in the Washington DC area:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/howard/news/community/ph-ll-history-marathon-0328-20130323,0,594097.story
not bad for mile 25
Nice photos.
"..the athletes will have to exercise keen judgment...the roads are extremely bad..."
"...he began plowing through the novices like a liner through a school of porpoises.""...a romp to the finish...will complete the journey of twenty miles."
I thought the best part was, "In the first race, the Washington team beat the runners from Baltimore".
I know the article says this was before 26.2 became the standard marathon distance. But, I'm guessing it's a lot more than 26.2 miles from Laurel to downtown D.C.
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But, I'm guessing it's a lot more than 26.2 miles from Laurel to downtown D.C.
Says here it's 19.1 miles.
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Huh. That's where Laurel is? I guess it's not that far. I guess I should go outside the Beltway more often... Nah.
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It's 19.1 in map miles. It's about 300 traffic-miles.
I would have guesses 30 miles. Wow. Things have changed since 1911. It would be cool to recreate the race. I would drive to Laurel for that.
Hey, it's not so bad out here outside the beltway (says the girl in Bowie, the town next to Laurel). I would love to do a race that started out here and ran to DC - could probably get there faster on foot than in traffic some days!
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A town named after David Bowie can't be that bad.
It might not be too hard to map this;
The Washington Times published the route the runners would follow: "From Laurel Hotel, Laurel, Md., to Washington Pike, following this route past Contee, across the railroad tracks, past Beltsville, again crossing railroad; thence by College Park, Hyattsville, and Bladensburg to Bladensburg Road and Fifteenth Street to Maryland Avenue, Washington, by Stanton Square, around the Capitol building grounds on the B Street side to First Street, to Pennsylvania Avenue, when a romp to the finish, at Thirteenth Street (Munsey Building), will complete the journey of twenty miles."
MTA:something like this: http://www.runningahead.com/logs/8d3e7f3d441c43bda9540bb149d88cc5/courses/6772acebd9774a0199b784f5684fc069 but present day Rt 1 does not cross the railroad tracks, so there would be more variation up there.
I get 19.59 miles. Although, there's no B St. on the map so I guessed that's current day Constitution Ave.
It might not be too hard to map this; The Washington Times published the route the runners would follow: "From Laurel Hotel, Laurel, Md., to Washington Pike, following this route past Contee, across the railroad tracks, past Beltsville, again crossing railroad; thence by College Park, Hyattsville, and Bladensburg to Bladensburg Road and Fifteenth Street to Maryland Avenue, Washington, by Stanton Square, around the Capitol building grounds on the B Street side to First Street, to Pennsylvania Avenue, when a romp to the finish, at Thirteenth Street (Munsey Building), will complete the journey of twenty miles."
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It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
I found historic maps of DC (from early 1900) that show B Street where we expected.
As to the RR crossings, I found this quote in wikipedia:
" The 1908 act contained stipulations requiring a realignment of the road between Beltsville and Contee to eliminate two grade crossings of the B&O Railroad as well as grade separations with the railroad at Elkridge and Winans."
Modern maps show 'Old Baltimore Pike', which must have been the road before it was realigned.
At least back then, nobody complained to the RD that their Garmin said the course was short!