[RC] The REAL history of the marathon - Barbara Goldthorpe
Okay, I gotta clear this up. The history of
the marathon stems back to legend that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens,
cried, "Rejoice, we conquer!" and fell down dead. This run was documented
600 years after the Persians invaded the plain of Marathon with intent to
enslave the city of Athens. The Athenians sent Philippides the
messenger to Sparta to call for aid (150 miles total). He managed
this in less than 2 days. One account of this part of Greek history
claims that Philippides also made the run from Marathon to Athens and then
dropped dead. However, this seems unlikely after running to Sparta.
Additionally, accounts of the battle documented close to the time it actually
occurred did not note the runner at all. It was corroborated by Greek
historians 6 centuries after the actual event. If it even happened at all,
it was certainly not Philippides. Later on, Philippides' name became
Pheidippides and Robert Browning continued the legend by writing about it in his
Dramatic Idylls in the 19th century.
When the Olympics were reinstated in 1896, a
Frenchman named Breal decided to add the Marathon to the Olympics as a final
event. The distance at that point was not official, and when it was run
for the first few Olympic games, it fluctuated. It was finally determined
as 26.2 miles, and has remained that.
Don't know much about endurance riding, but I do
know about running (and some really cool martial arts stuff
too!)
