To run a marathon: the evolution of a folk tradition

In the year 490 B. c., Persia invaded Greece. The two armies met in pitched battle upon the Plain of Marathon in north-east Attica. Although the lesser force, the Athenians out-manoeuvred their enemy and won an overwhelming victory. According to legend, news of this great triumph was carried to Athens by Pheidippides, who said with his dying gasp ‘Rejoice, we conquer’. He had run all the way, a distance of some twenty miles. Thus the concept of the marathon run was born, but it was not until the holding of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 that the marathon race came into being. Appropriately, those Games were held in Athens, and the marathon was won by a Greek athlete. In 1908, when the Olympic Games came to London, it was decided that the marathon should start at Windsor Castle and finish at the White City Stadium, precisely in front of the Royal Box. The measured distance was 26 miles 385 yards. This distance was eventually adopted as the standard for all marathons throughout the world.