How did World War I affect the Boston Marathon?

Instead of the traditional marathon format, the Boston Marathon took place as a military relay race in 1918. This change, however, was temporary; the military relay format only took place in 1918, though the event was still held on the traditional Patriots' Day holiday.

The 1918 military relay race was run in groups of 10 men, each of whom ran 2.5 miles. The 14 competing teams were composed of members of different branches of the United States Armed Forces. The winning team took 2 hours, 24 minutes and 53 seconds to complete the course.