Anniversary of bombings and centenary of Duffy’s victory run together in Boston

This might have been the year they celebrated and commemorated James Duffy. Joint centenaries like this don't come around too often: 100 years since Duffy's victory in the 1914 Boston Marathon, and also the outbreak of the first World War – which then sadly took Duffy's life, just one year later.

In his 24 short years Duffy enjoyed a storied running career. Born in Sligo, partly raised in Edinburgh, and later moving to Toronto, Duffy surely qualifies as one of Ireland’s first great marathon runners.

By the age of 21 he was already one of the best in the world, finishing fifth in the 1912 Olympic marathon in Stockholm, representing Canada, and a year later he won the famous Yonkers Marathon in New York.

Duffy’s victory in Boston was certainly celebrated at the time. His entourage may have failed to find a bookmaker willing to take their $15,000 bet on his victory, but Duffy didn’t disappoint, running clear in the last mile to win in 2:25:14 – and on crossing the finish line immediately demanding he be given a cigarette and beer to help celebrate.

Indeed to this day nothing celebrates and commemorates distance running quite like the Boston Marathon. It is, by now, so treasured in history every year has been turned into an anniversary of something: some great victory, some dramatic defeat, or some new entry into the record books.

First modern marathon
And although it is not the original, it is the next best thing – instantly inspired by the staging of the first modern marathon, at the 1896 Olympics in Athens, and held continuously every year since.

Over that time it also paved the way for the first mass entries; the first “unofficial” women’s race; the first wheelchair division; and the first big pay cheque for the winners.

The familiar, distinctly challenging course, and the annual staging on Patriots’ Day has in it itself become historic.

Then, just when it seemed Boston was in danger of forgetting more history than all other big city marathons will ever know, it was struck by the one moment that will never be forgotten. Because now, it seems, everything in its 118-year history is being set aside by something as tragic as the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings.

There is no escaping the thought that what happened last year will be on the minds of all 36,000 runners that line up at the start in Hopkinton on Monday.

And still it is impossible to comprehend the scene at last year’s finish on Boylston Street, when the two bombs exploded, killing three spectators, and injuring 260 others.

But along with that sad commemoration is the celebration that the race must and always will go on.

Duffy continued to race after his celebrated victory in Boston, turning professional, and by then had racked up seven marathons victories in a row.

He had his moments of controversy, too, and after winning the 20-mile Ward Marathon, in Toronto in 1912, narrowly avoided disqualification after it was discovered his supporters had trailed his main rival in a hurling abuse at him along the way.

Indeed Duffy lost the 1911 Ward Marathon after he stopped to argue with a group of rival supporters.

By then Duffy had also enlisted in the Canadian army, following the outbreak of the first World War, and in April of 1915, his 16th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force landed in Flanders, Belgium, on the eve of what turned out to be the Second Battle of Ypres.

That area is still known as the 12km circle of slaughter, as it still coughs up the remains of the 500,000 young soldiers that died there.

Breach in the Allied lines
The Second Battle of Ypres was just two days old when Duffy found himself on the front lines. His battalion were trying to defend a breach in the Allied lines, and retake Kitchener's Wood, where the Germans had set up their defences.

There, on the afternoon of April 23rd, 1915, a piece of shrapnel from an exploding German shell struck Duffy in the head.

With his brain half protruding from his skull, he was stretchered back to one of the many field hospitals behind the trenches, where he died a few hours later, eight days before his 25th birthday.

He remains buried in Plot 1, Row F at the nearby Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery – not uniquely celebrated, or commemorated, yet not entirely forgotten.

That's partly because four years ago Patrick Walsh, an occasional marathon runner, with a special interest in the first World War, decided to enter the In Flanders Fields Marathon, which commemorates all the soldiers who died in that area between 1914 and 1918.

As the only Irish entrant, Walsh’s race number was also inscribed with the name James Duffy – who was actually well known to the race organisers as a former winner of the Boston Marathon.

Walsh, now suitably enthused, has since been celebrating and commemorating Duffy in his own little ways.

He contacted the Boston Marathon organisers, informing them of Duffy’s upcoming centenary, but for now all their thoughts, understandably, are on the first anniversary of the bombings. He informed me, too, and next year, on the first centenary of Duffy’s death, there may be more cause for celebration and commemoration, as by then he might be a little less forgotten.