good morning and welcome to what's going on i'm jan knight the host for this morning show and with me is time to darien camis author coaching journalist and marathon runner good morning tom and thank you for being here jan tamas author of two books on the boston marathon a senior writer for a new england runner magazine and his work has appeared in runner's world running times marathon and beyond track and field news and other burning publications and his newest project is a documentary on the history of the boston marathon so that's what i'd like to get started on is right at the beginning where tell me about the beginning of the boston marathon and the awesome out on as it is now isn't it's a it's a compilation of many stories but that was the ideal for young men of that era to be brave to be enduring to be tough to be of military age and do something hard at risk so the marathon had military origins and that's of course not the way it is has evolved you know many changes since then can you describe some of the changes that have gone since the beginning in researching my book i spent endless hours days in the bowels of the boston public library in the microfilm reading all the old newspapers and boston a lot of newspapers and reading the stories  for proving manhood people watch boxing matches they won't expecting people to mouth honest to drop dead so they were watching the race with this sort of lure of death they thought these guys were going to die they watched horses die regularly out on the streets so why not people running so it was it was a risky business to run a marathon it was not considered healthful it was something only young men he's canadian was in the in the cayman army the next year he was in france he was in the trenches and with the order to charge into the enemy trenches this was you know a physical a two to charge into the enemy trenches in engage the enemy and hand to hand combat and win the war but machine guns opened up as he as you ran across the field and he was killed this was the the com come real yes wow now that this now you mention that women were not allowed to run in those days as well well not yet not only it's clear women had the right they had the in durance they had the courage but there was nothing they were women wanting to run in the boston marathon or through the through the rest of the thirty's the forty's on through the then you know after body game women started running and it was good for the women to run you know there they're big fear with a woman and woman running they would become masculine they would become muscular is if that would happen accidentally i mean you have to become competition in the mountain something that is close to my heart since i coached a greater boston track club and where contending every year for the for the team title yeah we wanted a couple of times men and women in our by runners will be out there trying to do that again i mean that's that's the fun of this competition isn't it is part of part of it and i mean for young people it's a serious part they want to test themselves and see how good they can possibly get as you get older you want to be able to just continue doing it because it's certainly a huge difference in people who exercise throughout their lives and people who don't yeah i mean if there's anything medical silver bullet in our society it's  time so when did you begin running a marathon i mean you you ran for many many years when i came up the ordinary way by running in high school i went to high school in milford  got better at it and started running better and finally finished by seventy five when i was twenty six eighteenth place qualify for number trials and was one of wow so in all of these years that you have participated in them in the boston marathon are there any special highlights that come to mind immediately well it's in snowed that morning in there you know the kind of snow that stays on the grass but not the pavement so you know it's snowing like above your head and it's melting so it's near freezing water falling and my hands are so cold that i was trying to give the peace sign number in order to run that's something that is relatively new well you know it's an athletic contest and there are rules you have to start at the start and finish the finish you can't just jump  seen her before and she was wearing a t shirt that wasn't totally covered with sweat i mean you can't you can't run a mouth on without getting your should completely sweaty  areas like at the start and the finish and the crowds are just kept away from the runners unlike they used to be i mean before there was crowd control it was then you could the crowds kept edging forward you know one person would get in front of the our documentary film yes i'm the executive producer for that the marathon has come full circle from its origin as a expression of the bravery of young men of military age although i'm out of boston strong to the bravery of all people all people who are going to run the marathon regardless of the threats like occurred in  twenty thirteen where are you in the development of that documentary at this point we're house owners that we're in town now doing a lot of filming of interviews we've got  is a reflection of history and a celebration of physicality and a celebration of the community of boston and a celebration of all the communities along the way that i look forward to celebration of all things american to you know that people still go out there and run this race but it actually the original name of the mount on was not the boston marathon it was the american marathon making sure that the memory of those who died or were injured is always preserved the memory of what that might have been agitating for some sort of victims of the bombing the winners of all the years a lot of space on the on the bridge in the bridge would be an archway over the mass pike as a greeting to people coming to boston or what an excellent idea however brighton and massively change that whole area so this is still on the books as a part of the project but it's now become small part of a project that's huge and you know multi millions of dollars of peace yet of world cooperation on that we should go to the olympics other people felt that that was that was wrong we shouldn't go to the olympics so when bill rodgers was at  information about the boston marathon and before we wrap up i just want to mention that the becker to see family fun run which is coming up on april tenth sunday april tenth in this is going to be the belmont high school track and it will be a challenge champion please mark there on your calendar sunday april tenth and come to the boston or to the becker p c family fun run and thank you tom so much for being until next time stay well and stay tuned to what's going