Boston Marathon 2024: Half a million fans line the streets on Patriots’ Day for 128th edition of historic race… with NFL legend Rob Gronkowski waiting for 30,000 runners at the finish line

Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski waited at the finish line for the 30,000 runners who took part in Monday’s Boston Marathon.

All 50 US states – and nearly 130 countries – were represented in the 128th edition of the historic race, with approximately 500,000 fans expected to line the streets of Boston.

The action started around 9 a.m. ET with the men’s and women’s wheelchair races, before the elite runners hit the road half an hour later.

Then, at 10 a.m. ET Monday, the throng of amateur runners began the 26.2-mile journey from Hopkinton to the finish line on Boylston Street.

At the end of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon, former NFL tight end Gronkowski was waiting. The 34-year-old spent nearly a decade in New England and won three Super Bowls with the Patriots alongside Tom Brady.

At the end of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual marathon, former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski was waiting

About 500,000 supporters are expected to line the streets of Boston for the historic race

Gronkowski, a former New England Patriots tight end, was named grand marshal of the race

Around 10 a.m. ET on Monday, the crowd of amateur runners began the 26.2-mile journey

Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma secured the lead in the men’s race on Monday morning

Gronkowski was named the race’s “grand marshal” after winning the Patriots’ Award in 2024. He was seen holding the trophy and throwing a football early Monday morning before appearing at the Red Sox game later in the day to throw out the first pitch.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better day,” he said, before climbing into an electric car that transported him around the course. “The city of Boston always comes out to support, no matter the event. The weather is perfect, the energy is radiating.’

Security in Boston was tight as this year’s race marked 11 years since the tragic bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds of others.

The Patriots’ Day race also fell on One Boston Day, when the city remembers the victims of the 2013 tragedy. At the finish line on Boylston Street, bagpipes accompanied Governor Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and members of the victims’ families as they laid a few wreaths at the site of the explosions.

Swiss Marcel Hug achieved a sixth victory in the men’s wheelchair race – in record time

Japan’s Yuma Morii pulls away from the pack during the men’s elite race in Boston

Swiss athlete Marcel Hug and English athlete Eden Rainbow Cooper hold a trophy after finishing in first place in the men’s and women’s professional wheelchair field

Police on bicycles approach the finish line of the Boston Marathon

Early on, Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women’s wheelchair race, while Switzerland’s Marcel Hug righted himself after crashing into a barrier before cruising to a sixth victory in the men’s race – in a course record.

Hug already had a four-minute lead, about 20 miles in, when he reached the historic firehouse bend in Newton. He crashed into the fence and did a sideways somersault, but quickly got back on track.

He finished in 1 hour, 15 minutes and 33 seconds, breaking his previous record by 1:33 to win his 14th major marathon in a row and his 24th overall.

The festivities started around 6 a.m., when race director Dave McGillivray dismissed about 30 members of the Massachusetts National Guard.

The otherwise sleepy New England town of Hopkinton marked its 100th anniversary as its starting line, sending out a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners.

At the finish line on Boylston Street, officials marked the anniversary of the 2013 bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds of others.

Elite female runners leave the starting line of the Boston Marathon

The 34-year-old spent nearly a decade in New England and won three Super Bowls with the Patriots alongside Tom Brady

Runners will depart from the start of the Boston Marathon on Monday

A wave of runners starts the Boston Marathon

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure cooker bombs went off at the marathon finish line.

The dead included Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.

During a tense four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston police officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was injured in a confrontation with the bombers.

Mayor Michelle Wu, Governor Maura Healey and family members of the Boston Marathon bombing victims lay wreaths at a memorial on Boylston Street on the eleventh anniversary of the attack

General view: A wreath and flowers are seen at a memorial on Boylston Street on the eleventh anniversary of the attack

In 2013, three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two pressure cooker bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon

Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died

Police have captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died.

Tsarnaev had been involved in a shootout with police and was run over by his brother while fleeing.

“I think we’re all still living in those tragic days of 10 years ago,” former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans said recently.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death and in recent years much attention has been focused on his attempt to avoid being executed.

The bombing not only united Boston – “Boston Strong” became the city’s rallying cry – but inspired many in the running community and prompted dozens of people affected by the terrorist attack to run the marathon.