During the 2 weeks leading up to the Philly Marathon we are releasing facts about the race daily on twitter.

We will also list the facts here for those who would like to keep up with them. The Philly Marathon is the premier Marathon and Half Marathon of one of the largest cities in the United States. If you are not familiar with the running community in Philadelphia, do your research and you will want to run here!

Now for the facts….

1. The @Philly_Marathon came under control of the City of Philadelphia in 1994, however began 40 years earlier. #PhillyMarathonFacts
2. The first @Philly_Marathon was held in 1954 and was originally named the Shanahan Catholic Club Marathon. #PhillyMarathonFacts
3. The @Philly_Marathon was once named the Greater Philadelphia Independence Marathon in 1981-82. #PhillyMarathonFacts
4. In 1994 the field of runners for the @Philly_Marathon was just 1,500 runners. In 2014 over 30,000 runners are expected. #PhillyMarathonFacts
5. The last runner from Pennsylvania to win the @Philly_Marathon was Gavin Gaynor in 1997. #PhillyMarathonFacts
6. The previous five men’s winners of the @Philly_Marathon have all been from the USA. #PhillyMarathonFacts
7. The only man to win @Philly_Marathon more than two times was Ted Corbitt, winning 4x! Winning in ’54, ’58, ’59, ’62. #PhillyMarathonFacts
8. A woman from the United States has not won the @Philly_Marathon since Kristin Price of North Carolina won in 2007. #PhillyMarathonFacts
9. William Scholl is the fastest man to ever run the @Philly_Marathon setting the record at 2:14:59 in 1982. #PhillyMarathonFacts
10. Irina Mashkantseva of Russia is the fastest woman to ever run the @Philly_Marathon setting the record at 2:35:37 in 2012. #PhillyMarathonFacts
11. The past two female winners of the @Philly_Marathon (‘12 & ’13) have been named Irina, however they are not the same person. #PhillyMarathonFacts
12. The first female winner of the @Philly_Marathon was Sue Morse with a time of 3:58:49 in 1966. #PhillyMarathonFacts
13. The Half Marathon option was added to the @Philly_Marathon Race Weekend in 2006. #PhillyMarathonFacts
14. The @Philly_Marathon ranks top ten in the nation’s largest marathons with 30,000+ runners. #PhillyMarathonFacts