Marathon expands field by 9,000 runners

BOSTON – Boston Marathon organizers expanded the field by 9,000 runners, to 36,000, after fatal bombings in April left thousands unable to finish, Bloomberg News reported last week.
The 2014 edition of the 26.2-mile race from Hopkinton, Mass., to Boston will be the second-largest in its 118-year history, eclipsed only by the 38,708 entrants in the 1996 Centennial Boston Marathon.
Two bombings near the finish line of this year’s race killed three people and injured more than 200.
Some 5,624 runners were unable to finish the world’s oldest annual marathon. They were granted automatic entry into the 2014 event, which is scheduled for April 21. Of those runners, more than 4,500 have already registered, organizers said.
Registration for new qualifiers will begin Sept. 9. •

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