A running list of the Boston Marathon's (many) landmarks

First ran in 1897, the Boston Marathon is a legendary race that courses through a region that reveres its history. It's no surprise, then, that the 26.2-mile route is peppered with monuments, landmarks and traditions befitting its status as one of the world's biggest races.

Here are some of the must-see people and places that dot the roads from Hopkinton's Town Common to Boston's Boylston Street.

For 32 years, Dick and Rick Hoyt were staples at the Boston Marathon. The legendary duo would cross the finish line, father pushing son, Rick's arms raised high in the air from his wheelchair. 

Today, the image sends marathoners off as they begin their 26.2 mile journey in Hopkinton. A statue honoring "Team Hoyt" depicts the late marathoners in bronze.

Dick was 80 when he died in March 2021. Rick, who had cerebral palsy, died at 61 two years later.

The two finished more than a thousand races around the world, but Boston was home.

For the first time this year, another figure will be even closer to the starting line. At the corner of Hopkinton's Hayden Rowe Street and Main Street, Bobbi Gibb is no longer hiding in the bushes.

The Gibb statue, a self-portrait, was erected to commemorate her legacy as the first woman to race in the marathon. Unveiled earlier this year, the life-size statue depicts Gibb running down Boylston Street, reaching the race's finish after sneaking into the men-only race.

"Women are not physiologically capable of running a marathon," Gibb was told in writing when she requested official entry into the 1966 race. She knew better, since she'd been running 40-mile stretches recreationally in San Diego. She bought a bus ticket and made her way across the country anyway, stopping off to trade her nurse's shoes for a pair of boy's trainers.

She ran three Boston marathons, then went onto become a critically acclaimed sculptor and author.

Further along the route, there's another icon in bronze. This time, it's a furry friend.

Spencer, a golden retriever who became a fixture on the marathon route following the 2013 bombings at the finish line, went viral wearing a raincoat and holding the poles of twin "Boston Strong" flags in his mouth, rippling in the wind as runners passed by.

Spencer, a therapy dog from Holliston who became the official marathon dog in 2022, died the following year at 13.

The statue in Ashland honors Spencer, but Richard Powers, Spencer's owner, also has a new good boy he said will keep the tradition alive. Keep an eye out for Jimmy on April 20.

At mile 13, marathoners make it over the race's midpoint with help from Wellesley college students.

What's known as the "scream tunnel" is really a row of students from the women's college who hold signs, screech and sometimes offer a smooch to passing runners.

It's a decades-old tradition along Route 135, adored by runners and screamers alike. During the first Boston Marathon in 1897, Wellesley students reportedly cheered on a Harvard University student they all liked. A few years later, it became tradition, growing more popular after women were allowed to race.

The Wellesley screamers reportedly "let out a roar" when they saw in 1966 when they saw Gibb, the race's first female runner, passing the campus.

After running, and running some more, marathoners reach a sharp turn in the road — but it's not downhill from here.

Just past mile 17, they reach the "Firehouse turn," at the Newton Fire Station and begin what's considered an especially brutal part of the race.

It's also the most strategically significant, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Turning onto Commonwealth Avenue, runners are suddenly throttling toward downtown Boston.

Before they get there, they have to get through the "Newton Hills," a four-mile stretch that can "make or break a runner." Thankfully, huge crowds are there to cheer them on.

The firehouse is also home to the Newton Firefighters Children Fund, a charity that races and raises money for the children of fallen firefighters across the state.

Johnny Kelley, who holds the record for the most Boston marathon's run — starting 61 and finishing 58 of them — is preserved in a statue in the heart of Newton.

Actually, two of him are. "Young at heart" depicts Kelley as a 27-year-old, completing the first of two marathons he would win, and Kelley at 84, crossing the finish time for the last time. The two figures grasp hands, sharing the same smile.

Kelley, who died in 2004 at 97, was a "salt-of-the-earth Irishman" from Medford. He worked day jobs to support his running career, including decades for a Boston-based electrical power plant.

In all 112 of his races, he never earned any money — just one refrigerator, 22 diamond rings and 118 watches, according to the New England Historical Society.

It's fitting that Kelley's statue was erected on the base of Heartbreak Hill, a nickname he inspired when he went from frontrunner to fifth-race finisher while tackling the slope in 1936. Ellison "Tarzan" Brown beat Kelley that year, a member of the Narraganset Indian Tribe of Rhode Island and a two-time Boston Marathon winner.

At mile 20, "Heartbreak Hill" is the best-known challenge of the marathon, a steep half-mile uphill that can decide a runner's fate. It's the last of four hills in a row that runners say get progressively worse.

But they also say it's become such a symbol of the marathon, where so much camaraderie takes shape as runners pass under the banner congratulating them for summiting the hill. Runners have said that being together can help you power through once you've hit a wall. 

With just a mile to go in the race, the stretch through Kenmore square is always bustling on Marathon Monday.

Crowds fill into the busy square, fanning out under the Citgo sign and the shadow of Fenway Park. Inside the stadium, the Red Sox play their only morning game of the season, a 50-year Patriots' Day tradition.

Fans can enjoy the game, then make their way over to watch runners start their last mile. In year's past, the ball game was intended to finish up around the same time elite runners would make it to Kenmore. But as racing Boston has gotten bigger, and start times earlier, many top racers finish before the first pitch.

After a relatively straight race, the final two turns of the marathon are sweet ones.

As runners make the sharp right, followed by a sharp left, they run what has become a famous mantra: "Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston."

But it's not time to celebrate just yet.

"Just like last year I expected that the finish line would be right there, and, well, it's not. It looks SO far away once you turn on Boylston. I almost wanted to let out a sob," wrote one runner.