Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon (first run in 1897) and one of the seven Abbott World Marathon Majors. The 131st edition runs Monday, April 19, 2027 — Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts state holiday. The point-to-point road course covers 26.2 miles from the village of Hopkinton east into downtown Boston, finishing on Boylston Street at Copley Square. On paper it looks fast: the start in Hopkinton sits at roughly 490 ft elevation, the Boylston finish at just 10 ft — a net drop of about 460 ft (140 m). In practice it is one of the hardest major marathons in the world, because of where that drop is distributed.