The above picture is of me running my first marathon in 2013. For the Great Ocean Road Marathon in Australia
In our Running ABC’s, M is for Marathon!
Many see the marathon as the pinnacle of running with the distance being held in high regard and is one of the most popular distance events at the Olympics. The name comes from Greek history where the first marathon commemorated the run of the soldier Pheidippides as he ran from the battlefield near Marathon in Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. According to the legend Pheidippides ran approximately 25 miles to announce the defeat of the Persians to the Athenians. Upon reaching Athens and making his announcement, he was rumoured to collapse and die from exertion from his run.
That's not the entire story as I found out recently after reading Dean Karnazes' book, Road to Sparta.
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Sparta-Reliving-Inspired-Greatest/dp/1609614747
Pheidippides wasn't just a soldier, he was a hmerodromos, who were career runners and ran mostly as messengers for their king and country. Their runs would take days and in this specific time in history, Pheidippides had first run from Athens to Sparta to gather more support for the Athenian Army to combat the oncoming Persians. The road to Sparta was about 150 miles and when he arrived, due to the Spartans wanting to delay their arrival into battel, he the had to return to Athans to let them know of the delay.
The story then goes that he returned to help fight in the battle near Marathon before is final run back to Athens. All in all his runs over the recent days would have totaled close to 400 miles, resulting in his eventual death.
The marathon is 42.195 kilometers in distance with the current world record holder being Dennis Kimetto from Kenya, with a time of 2 hours 2 minutes and 57 seconds that he ran at the 2014 Berlin Marathon.
As part of Nike's Sub 2 Hour Project, we saw someone come close to the elusive 1 hour 59 minute mark. Even though it was not an official marathon Eliud Kipchoge came excruciatingly close to breaking the 2 hours mark when he finished with a time of 2 hours and 25 seconds.
Although, not a recognised marathon, both Kipchoge and Nike gained a lot of respect in taking on the amazing feet.
If you missed my earlier posts, you can see them at the following link:
@run.vince.run/the-abc-s-of-running-the-letter-a
@run.vince.run/running-abc-s-b-is-for-bq
@run.vince.run/the-running-abc-s-c-is-for
@run.vince.run/d-is-for-doms-in-the-running-abc-s
@run.vince.run/running-abc-s-e-is-for-epoc
@run.vince.run/continuing-our-running-abc-s-f-is-for-fartlek
@run.vince.run/g-is-for-glutes-in-the-running-abc-s
@run.vince.run/in-our-running-abc-s-h-is-for-heart-rate-zone
@run.vince.run/in-the-abc-s-of-running-i-is-for-interval-training
@run.vince.run/j-is-for-in-the-running-abc-s
@run.vince.run/in-the-running-abc-s-k-is-for-kenya
@run.vince.run/for-the-running-abc-s-l-is-for-lactic-acid