The Centennial Boston Marathon in 1996 established Creating a record as the world 's largest marathon with 38,708 entrants , 36,748 starters , and 35,868 finishers .

It was the largest marathon ever , with a record Recording number of 50869 starters and 50564 finishers , and an average finish Process_end time of 4:34:45 .

There were 20 starters but only 17 returned Arriving scores .