This book has everything you would want to know about the marathon. Has wonderful pictuers that made me want to put on my shoes and run a marathon. Has background information on past races and winners. A very good book!

I picked this book up while getting ready to run in the 104th running of Boston and it truly heightened the whole experience. It enabled you to pick out the landmarks throughout the course (Kenmore Square, Newton Hills, the 25 mile Citgo Sign, the screaming Wellesley girls/I high-fived one of them, the Brookline cemetery in the netherworlds of the last 5-6 miles) and most of all get a good grasp and appreciation on the history that had run before.

It's amazing what a complete detailed history the author was able to put together and how he was able to pick out a unique individual aspect from each race. What stands out are the American Indians running at the turn of last century with Tom Longboat, Clarence DeMar's dominance in the 20's, Kelly Senior and Junior, Bill Rodgers, Ibrahim Hussein, and Cosmas Ndeti. They are all there with details from the race, details from the runner's lives, details of the victories, and more interesting details of the not quite victorious. What really stands out is the focus on the plight of women runners in the marathon and how difficult it was for them to break the barrier in the 60's to enter the race. Bobbie Gibb, Kathrine Switzer, and Sara Mae Berman were true pioneers and had to face harassment from race officials to even be allowed to run in the prestigious Boston Athletic Association great race. Perhaps my favorite story though is that of Rosie Ruiz in 1980 that jumped the barrier from the ranks of the spectators and ran the last miles and took credit for the women's victory for a contentious period of time. She proved a little mentally unbalanced and to this day swears she won the race. This book captures all those quirky details and puts together a great history of what the 26.2-mile jaunt in Boston is all about.

I hold back giving this 5-stars because the non-runners may not find this book so engaging as myself, but if you care about the sport and especially if you are getting ready to run Boston don't miss picking up this book. Boston only gets more interesting year from year as a South Korean broke the Kenyan dominance last year and maybe just maybe Fatuma Roba will take the laurel wreath away from Catherine Ndereba.

The people of Boston love this race as is evidenced by not a single stretch of the course passing by without throngs of spectators handing you oranges, water, beer. Consequently the rest of the world has caught on to the enthusiasm of the Bostonians, as Boston has become the marathon to run. There is prestige, there is sweat, there is heartache and heartbreak, and there is a wonderful history all captured in this book. Run on.

Running fanatics will become as obssessed with reading this book as they are with completing their daily workouts. Derderian combines rich, journalistic descriptions of each year's race with engaging biographies of individual runners -- winners and non-winners alike -- many of whose stories are chronicled across successive chapters. The book should be especially pleasing to those interested in reliving the era of American marathon dominance in the 1970s and 1980s: they'll not only get to read more about Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit Samuelson, but will also be treated to vivid and inspiring accounts of perennial also rans like Tom Fleming and Patti Lyons Castalano. Equally fascinating are the tales of the Japanese, Finnish, and Kenyan runners who have enjoyed their own periods of preeminence over the years. If you are training for an upcoming marathon, you should definitely keep this volume close at hand for motivation.