BOSTON -- When tens of thousands of runners assemble at the starting line of Boston Marathon 2004 in Hopkinton, Mass., they will be taking their place in the annals of one of the world's greatest races.

For runners and spectators alike, the 26.2 mile race is an experience like no other, not only because of its grueling course, which sets a tough standard for any race, but because it is an athletic event steeped in history, tradition, legend and ceremony. Few other races have the cachet of the Boston Marathon.

It's likely that the handful of men from the Boston Athletic Association, who first came up with the idea for the race back in 1896, had no idea their race would one day boast more than 18,000 runners, draw nearly 1 million spectators and have an economic impact of more than $18 million.

Inspired by the first modern Olympic games in 1896, the first Boston Marathon, was held in 1897 and was called the American Marathon. It started at Metcalf's Mill in Ashland, Mass., and finished at Irvington Oval, near Copley Square in downtown Boston. John J. McDermott of New York emerged from a 15-member starting field to become the first winner of the Boston Marathon, which was then a 24.5 mile race. He did it in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

Foreigners entered the field from the earliest days. The first foreign champion was a 22-year-old Boston College student, Ronald MacDonald, of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He won the race in just under 2 hours and 45 minutes. Today, 19 countries claim a marathon champion, although the United States boasts the most with 41 crowns.

By the early 1900's the fledgling race had grown in popularity, the field of entrants ballooning from that first 18 to 182 in 1909. The legend of the Boston Marathon, too, began to evolve, as famed runners such as Clarence DeMar of Melrose, Mass., won his first of seven Boston Marathon titles in 1911.

Although DeMar "retired" from running after winning that first title on the advice of his doctors, he later decided to run again. He went on to win six more Boston Marathon titles between 1922 and 1930, including three consecutive crowns from 1922 to 1924. He was 41 years old when he won his final title in 1930. That victory came after the course was officially lengthened to 26 miles, 385 yards in 1924, conforming to Olympic standards. The starting line was also moved west to Hopkinton.

It was in 1928, of course, that John A. "The Elder" Kelley made his marathon debut. The man who holds the record for most Boston Marathons run, Kelley won the race in 1935 and again in 1945, but it was not until 1933, on his third attempt, that he completed the course, placing 37th. Kelley has started 61 races and finished 58. His final race, in 1992, was at the age of 84.

It was Kelley who was a central figure in the naming of Newton's famous "Heartbreak Hill" a spot where the elevation of the course suddenly rises from 150 feet to 230 feet, 21 grueling miles into the course. Many think this the rise of the hill at a point when many runners are already reaching a breaking point is the reason for the nickname, but not so.

According to the Boston Athletic Association, the hill earned its moniker in 1936, when Kelley caught up with the eventual winner, Ellison "Tarzan" Brown, on the Newton Hills. It was there that Kelley "made the friendly gesture" of patting Brown on the shoulder. Brown, the legend goes, responded by regaining the lead on the final hill and, as Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason reported, "Breaking Kelley's heart." The name stuck.

It was DeMar's winning records that stuck, however, until 1941, when Leslie Pawson of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, joined DeMar as the only champion to win the race three times or more. He won his first title in 1933 and his second in 1938. Since then only five other male runners have joined this elite group -- Gerard Cote, Bill Rodgers, Eino Oksanen, Ibrahim Hussein and Cosmas Ndeti.

During the war years, race participation fell off somewhat from the Depression years. In 1933, 253 entrants joined the field. By 1941 the field had narrowed to 156 and dipped to a mere 80 in 1944, the ranks thinned, no doubt, by the large numbers of men serving in World War II.

The numbers began to pick up once again in 1947, when for the only time in the history of the men's open race, a world best was established by Korean runner Yun Bok Suh, who turned in a 2:25:39 time.

The following year, Gerard Cote, who hailed from Hyacinthe, Quebec, became the race's second four-time champion. He first won in 1940, then in 1943 and 44. To date, only DeMar, Cote and Bill Rodgers have won the race four or more times.

John J. Kelley became the first and only B.A.A. member to win the race in 1957 and was the only American to win the race from 1946 to 1967.

Through these years, only men were allowed to run the race as official entrants. In 1966, however, Roberta Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, although she was an unofficial entrant. She finished the race with a time of 3:21:40 to place 126th overall. She again claimed the "unofficial" title in 1967 and 1968.

It was Kathrine Switzer who became the first woman to officially receive a number in 1967. She did it by signing "K. Switzer" on her entry form. She finished in 4 hours and 20 minutes. Despite the obvious desire women had to run the race, it wasn't until 1972 that they were officially allowed to run. That year Nina Kuscsik emerged from an 8-member field to win the race in just over 3 hours and 10 minutes.

By 1975, not only were women running the Boston Marathon, but disabled athletes were also allowed to participate. Bob Hall became the first officially recognized participant to finish the race in a wheelchair. He was granted permission to enter provided that he could cover the distance in under three hours. He finished in 2:58:00, signaling the start of the wheelchair division.

Two other records were set in 1975, as Liane Winter of West Germany established a women's world's best of 2:42:24, and Bill Rodgers collected his first of four titles.

It wasn't until 1983 that another world's best time was recorded. This was the year that Joan Benoit won her second Boston Marathon with a course record and also earned an American and world-best time of 2:22:43. Benoit won the Olympic Marathon the following summer and became the first person to have won both the Boston and Olympic marathons.

Despite the allure and prestige of the race through the decades, up until 1986 the runners were running for the title only. In 1986 prize money was awarded for the first time, with Rob de Castella earning $60,000 and a Mercedes Benz for his first place finish.

In 1987, Rosa Mota of Portugal collected her first of three Boston Marathon titles, the only Boston champion to have won the marathon at both the Olympics and the World championships.

Up until 1967, the Boston Marathon had been run by under 1,000 entrants, but 1968 changed all that. That was the year 1,014 runners entered the field and it has been steadily growing ever since, jumping to more than 4,000 by 1978, and more than 9,000 in 1995. The field exploded in 1996, however, the race's centennial year, with 38,708 runners, the largest starting field in the history of the course and a record that holds today. The 1999 race topped out at 12, 797.

It was in 1988 that the thousands of runners who pounded their way through the course's eight towns were part of the closest finish in the race's history. That was the year Kenya's Ibrahim Hussein finished only one second ahead of Tanzania's Juma Ikangaa. By breaking the tape that year, Hussein became the race's first African winner. Africans have since won 11 of 12 races.

Africans have not been the only recent athletes dominating the race. Jean Driscoll of Champaign, Illinois won her first of seven consecutive wheelchair titles in 1990, equaling DeMar's men's open record. That same year master's champion John Campbell of New Zealand established an existing world best of 2:11:04 to finish fourth overall.

Setting and breaking records has always been a Boston Marathon tradition, and 1994 was a banner year for doing both. That year, Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya lowered the course record to 2:07:15, while Uta Pippig set the women's standard of 2:21:45. Ndeti is the only champion to have won the race in three consecutive years, which he did in 1995, joining Bill Rodgers and Clarence DeMar in that feat.

Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia became the first African woman to win the race in 1997. Two years later, in 1999, she became the second woman of the official era to win the race in three consecutive years. She was joined on the winner's stand by Joseph Chebet, of Kenya, who posted a triumphant 2:09.52 to mark the ninth consecutive year a Kenyan runner won the race.

For complete, live coverage of Boston Marathon 2004 Monday, April 19, be sure to tune in to Newscenter 5 starting with the EyeOpener at 5 a.m.