Hopkinton Wants to Become the Cooperstown of Marathons – runnersworld.com

• This month, the 26.2 Foundation, a nonprofit that supports marathoning and health initiatives, proposed a plan to build an International Marathon Center near the starting line of the Boston Marathon in in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
• The proposed Center will include a museum, hall of fame, training facilities, and event spaces to celebrate the sport of marathoning.

Every April, thousands of runners and spectators flood into Hopkinton, Massachusetts, a small town exactly 26.2 miles away from the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street.

Since 1924, when the Boston race officials decided to lengthen the event from 25 miles to today’s standard marathon distance, Hopkinton has hosted the iconic blue-and-gold starting line. And over the years, that famous race start has grown into more than just a yearly tradition for Hopkinton—it’s become a huge part of the town’s identity.

Like Marathon, Greece—the town where the Greek messenger Pheidippides supposedly began his 26.2-mile trek to Athens to announce the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.—Hopkinton has become a landmark destination for runners.

Even on the other 364 days of the year outside of Marathon Monday, the spirit of the sport lingers: In 2006, Hopkinton unveiled a statue called “Spirit of the Marathon,” which features two Greek runners—Spyridon Louis, winner of the first modern Olympic marathon in 1896, and Stylianos Kyriakides, 1946 Boston champion and one of the world’s first charity runners—striding side by side. A twin statue resides in Marathon, Greece.

It makes sense, then, that with all of the historic runners who’ve tread through town, Hopkinton would be the perfect place to host a marathon hall of fame. And that’s exactly what’s in the works: This month, the 26.2 Foundation, a nonprofit that supports marathoning and health initiatives, proposed a plan to build an International Marathon Center in Hopkinton.

The proposed center will include a museum containing historical running artifacts, a hall of fame, training facilities, event spaces, and outdoor gardens.

In a press release sent to Runner’s World, 26.2 Foundation director Tim Kilduff said the Center’s mission is to “preserve and advance the importance and contributions of the marathon; and advance the ideals of sportsmanship, competition, fair play, and the power of the human spirit.”

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According to Metro West Daily News, Hopkinton recently launched a search for bids to lease around 10 acres of land to house the Center near the one-mile mark on the Boston course. The newspaper reported that the 26.2 Foundation will soon submit a proposal to use the land to build the 30,000- to 35,000-square-foot building. As of now, construction on the Center will be privately funded, and there is no opening date yet on the calendar.

When asked whether Hopkinton will draw the kind of visitor numbers that a larger town would—say, Boston proper—Kilduff compared Hopkinton to Cooperstown, New York, a tiny village with a population of less than 2,000 that hosts the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Every year, Cooperstown draws more than 300,000 baseball fans to visit, according to Metro West Daily News.

“Some people might say [Hopkinton is] too small for that, but when you look at the size of Cooperstown, it is only a fraction of the size of Hopkinton,” 26.2 Foundation board member John Coutinho told the paper.

Watch: A running tour of the Boston Marathon course, beginning in Hopkinton.

“Hopkinton is a vibrant, welcoming community centrally located in New England and nestled 26.2 miles west of Boston,” Kilduff said in the release. “We are endowed with open space and natural resources, facilities, and programs that promote a well-educated and healthy community.”

If the spirit of the marathon is anywhere, it seems, it’s in Hopkinton. “We want to create a destination that engages visitors intellectually, emotionally, and physically,” Kilduff said.

Digital Editor Hailey first got hooked on running news as an intern with Running Times, and now she reports on elite runners and cyclists, feel-good stories, and training pieces for Runner’s World and Bicycling magazines.