History of a Marathon

Why is it called a marathon?

Why not just ‘a really long run that only insane people do’?

Yes. That has a much better ring to it, don’t you think?

Well, it all began in Greece, in the year 490 BC. (That was almost 2,500 years ago!) Here’s how the legend (which has many renditions) goes: A massive army from Persia crossed the Aegean Sea and landed at Marathon, a city in Greece about 25 miles from the city of Athens. The Persians had come to capture and enslave Marathon, then move on to capture and enslave Athens. The Persians had 50,000 highly trained warriors. The defending army at Marathon had only about 9,000. The Greeks were outnumbered 5 to 1.  At that time,the way people communicated between cities was either by sending a messenger on horseback, or by sending a professional runner.

The Greeks needed help, and due to the rocky and mountainous terrain (which is slowgoing with a horse), a runner was sent to get reinforcements. The runner’s name was Phillippides (or, by some accounts, Pheidippides). Phillippides ran from Marathon to Sparta (a city in southern Greece) to ask the Spartans for help and the Spartans (for religious reasons) would only come when the moon was full. So Phillippides ran all the way back to Marathon with this disappointing news. (The round trip from Marathon to Sparta was 150 miles, so let’s be glad that’s not the “marathon” part of this story!)

Unfortunately, the army at Marathon needed help instantly around to Athens to conquer it leaving the other half to take down Marathon. But the Persians at Marathon were facing a smart Greek army, and to make a long battle short, the Persians were defeated, losing 6400 warriors to the Greeks. Phillippides, the legend goes, was one of the men who battled the Persians at Marathon. (This after running the 150 miles to Sparta and back!)

When the battle was won, he was then chosen to run the 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to relay the news of the victory. He made it, but was so exhausted (from running to Sparta and back, battling the Persians, and then racing to Athens) that he collapsed after shouting “Rejoice, we conquer!” and then died. He lives on, though, in the heart of runners as a symbol of commitment, endurance, and willpower.

Some interesting tidbits

The length of a marathon was not fixed at first, since the only important factor was that all athletes competed on the same course. The marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were not of a set length, but were approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi), roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. When the modern Olympic Games were inaugurated in Greece in 1896, as part of Greek heritage, the legend of Phillippides was revived by a 24.85 mile (40,000 meters) run from Marathon Bridge to Olympic stadium in Athens.  

So why would a marathon be at 26.2 miles now?

Fast forward to the1908 Olympic Games which were held in London, England --- You may not believe this but it is actually because the royal family wanted the marathon’s finish line to be in front of the royal family’s “viewing box”, the course was lengthened to 26.2 miles. (The king and queen wanted the end of the race to ome to them, and so the runners had to go even farther!)

Anyway, after years and years of extremely heated discussion, this 26.2 mile distance was established at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France as the official marathon distance.

26.2 miles is equal to 26 miles plus 385 yards, or 42.16 kilometers.

It’s also, by the foot, equivalent to a long, long way.

But as history and records have shown, it is not impossible to achieve!

Source: Wikipedia and http://www.exercisetherighttoread.org/

Note:  For PNM 2011, Peter Kipleting Keter from Kenya won the men's marathon after clocking 2 hours 26 minutes while Chesire Rose came out tops in the women's marathon in 3 hours 20 minutes.