108th Boston Marathon
- By Doug Kurtis

The 108th Boston Marathon will be run Monday with a field that includes 577 Michigan entrants.

Flint running-store owner Mark Bauman intends to complete his 35th consecutive Boston race, which would give him the fourth-longest streak among active runners.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins hopes to finish his third marathon at Boston. The other two came at the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank events. Collins lay on the ground unconscious at mile 22 of his first marathon in Detroit. "Lawyers are a stubborn group," he said. "And it only fuels our fire when people say the human body cannot run 26.2 miles." Collins thanks a volunteer and the touch of an angel for helping him get up and finish the race.

The Boston Marathon is one of the oldest sporting events in the country. From 1897, it was held on Patriots' Day -- April 19 -- unless that fell on a Sunday. In 1969, the holiday was officially recognized as the third Monday in April.

Countless stories have been told about the race, and innumerable marathon facts could challenge the minds of trivia buffs. Boston holds the Guinness record for most marathon finishers -- 35,868 completed the 100th race, in 1996. The field now is limited to 20,000. The Boston Athletic Association has organized the race since its inception, though only one club member has won -- John J. Kelley in 1957.

More than 1,000 participants raise money for charities. Runners like Gabriel Bol Akau, a Sudanese refugee, will be supporting his country's education fund. Claudia Williams, a daughter of Red Sox legend Ted Williams, will be running in memory of her father and supporting the Jimmy Fund, which raises money to fight cancer in children. Bev Veals of Castle Rock, Colo., a five-year breast cancer survivor and a Suzy Komen honoree for her advocacy and volunteer work, will be running her first Boston Marathon.

The men's and women's open winners each receive $80,000 of the $525,000 in prizes. Some of the world's best marathoners will appear at the starting line in Hopkinton, Mass. It's no surprise that Kenyans Rodgers Rop and Robert Cheruiyot are favorites this year -- Kenyan men have won 12 of the past 13 races. Rop won in 2002, Cheruiyot last year.

Another Kenyan, Catherine Ndereba, two-time women's winner of the Crim 10-mile run in Flint, hopes to collect her third laurel wreath for the women.

As runners cross the finish line they will hear the Ondeko-za, or Japanese demon drummers, perform. This group has to be in peak physical shape to pound out the beat on Taiko drums that range in weight from 20 to 700 pounds. They have been a fixture at Boston's finish line since 1975. Equally impressive is the group's running ability. The drummers have run the entire perimeter of the United States -- 9,500 miles -- while wearing out 121 pairs of running shoes.