Boston Globe Editorial
Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya ran the fastest marathon ever Monday, going from Hopkinton to Boston in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds. It's a staggering accomplishment that belongs in the record books.
But the body that certifies records for marathons clearly did not have in mind Boston, the most prestigious of them all.
On two accounts, Mutai's accomplishment does not meet the International Association of Athletics Federations standards for a world record.
In a rule meant to equalize the impact of tailwinds, the association requires courses to loop around so that, in the case of marathons, which are 26.2 miles long, the start and finish lines are no more than 13.1 miles apart.
Boston, of course, is a straight shot. The Boston marathon also exceeds IAAF downhill regulations for having an overall elevation drop of 459 feet.
But neither of those measures takes into account the actual difficulty of the Boston course, whose twists, turns, ups and downs make it far tougher than any flat, circular course could be.
Runners almost universally consider Boston the toughest of the world's five major marathons. New York, London, Berlin and pancake-flat Chicago have nothing to compete with the steep inclines of Newton, culminating in the most humbling ascent of all the majors, Heartbreak Hill.
