BOSTON (WHDH) - Two Boston Marathon champions — 4-time winner Bill Rodgers and last year’s winner Dez Linden — showed off the first of 500 marathon banners that will be hung around the city for the 123rd running of the historic race.
The Tuesday morning ceremonial kick off to the marathon season took place by the finish line on Boylston Street where two monuments that will pay tribute to the three victims killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings are under construction.
“I think it means something very, very, very important about violence and peace and what we stand for as a city,” Rodgers said about the monuments.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh added that the monuments, which were designed by an artist selected by the families of the marathon victims, will reflect the true spirit of the city.
“We’re a city and people that bend not break, meaning we were bent that day but we didn’t break,” he said. “The resilience of Boston and where Boston Strong came out of, when you think about Boston Strong, it’s gone worldwide now.”
The public will get its first look at the monuments during an official unveiling this summer.
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