There are two kinds of people who are seen at a marathon, primarily the all important runners who tread the course of 42.195 kilometres and the other lot is that of spectators, all potential runners in their own right, cheering on the first group.
Whether you fall under either of the categories, there are some aspects of the age-old sport that you must be unfamiliar with, and hence Sportskeeda digs out to bring to the fore 5 facts about the history of marathons.
#1 The origin of the marathon
The roots of the marathon date back to 490 BC in the glorious land of Greece. The Greeks at that point in time were at war with the Persians and they emerged victorious in the battle which was taking place in the other part of the country, at Marathon. Thus, in order to convey the message of this all-important victory, a Greek soldier named Pheidippides covered a distance of 25 miles on foot from the battlefield to Athens.
On his arrival, legend has it that yelled out, "Rejoice, we are victorious.” post which he collapsed and died on the spot. Since then until today, marathons are held each year in the memory of the brave soldier as a salute to his undying spirit. In fact, a couple of movies have also been made to chronicle the origin of the sport, the first one being the 1959 film ‘The Giant of Marathon’, wherein Steve Reeves played Pheidippides.
The second film called ‘The Story of the Marathon: A Hero's Journey’ released in 1991 and had Yiannis Kouros portraying the role of Pheidippides.
#2 The first official marathon
With the modern Olympics being re-instituted in Athens in 1896, the organisers were eager to have an event that would take a leaf out of history and that is when Michel Bréal, a French scholar came up with the idea of a marathon, taking inspiration from the legend of Pheidippides.
There were a total of only 17 competitors, out of which 13 were of Greek nationality while the rest 4 were foreigners. A man named Spyridon Louis, a water carrier by profession who had some sort of military training emerged as the winner in a race which saw two race leaders collapse.
Such was the pride among his countrymen that two Greek princes ran alongside Louis for the two penultimate lap to cheer him and finally when he did win, he was warmly greeted by the King of Greece. The King asked Louis to ask for whatever he wanted as a reward and the simple man made a humble request of a new waggon to carry water.
#3 The marathon distance
Why is the distance of the marathon set at 26.2 miles or 42.195 kilometres? Well, it wasn't the case until the 1908 London Olympics, till which marathons of approximately 25 miles were held. Then in 1908 at London, it was Queen Alexandra who put forth a request the distance be extended to 26.2 miles until the East Lawn of Windsor Castle.
The reason behind this was the fact that then it was possible for the royal children to watch the race from their nursery. Thus, this distance became the international standard from 1924 onwards and carries on till the modern day.
#4 The oldest marathon
The oldest marathon to take place annually is the Boston Marathon which was started by the Boston Athletic Association way back in 1897. In the first edition of this long-distance race, only 15 participants accepted the challenge and lined up at the starting mark.
However, since then the Marathon has come a long way with its popularity growing each year by leaps and bounds. It rose to such an extent that in 1971 the organisers made it mandatory that all the runners were required to complete the 26.2-mile stretch in less than 3 and a half hours in order to stand a chance of qualification.
#5 The infamous runners
Well, there are regular runners and then there are the crazy ones. We looked down the history books and found a couple of purely eccentric ones. The first one being Belgian runner Stefaan Engels who ran a marathon every day of the year back in 2011. When asked about the reason he was quoted as saying that he considered running marathons more as 'a regular job!'
If that left you wide-eyed, well the second one is equally surprising!
A female by the name of Rosie Ruiz reached the finish line at the 1980 Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 31 minutes and 56 seconds and thereby emerged as the winner amongst the women. But the victory was short-lived, for it was soon found that the notorious being had only joined the marathon at the finish line after taking a subway ride in the middle of the race!
