Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42,195 metres (c. 26 mi 385 yd), [1] usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy.
The route between Marathon and Panathenaic Stadium was repeated when Athens hosted the 2004 Games. The race distance varied from 40 to 42 kilometres (25 to 26 mi) in the early editions as it was typically based upon the distance between two points that the organisers felt were suitable.
The first known written account of a run from Marathon to Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch (46–120 AD), in his essay "On the Glory of Athens". Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either Thersippus or Eukles. Lucian, a century later, credits one "Philippides". It seems likely that in the 500 years between ...
Michel Bréal originated the idea of a race from the city of Marathon to Athens, taking inspiration from the legend of Pheidippides. The first such marathon race was a Greek national competition that served as a qualifier for the Olympic marathon, won by Charilaos Vasilakos. The length of the marathon in 1896 was approximately 40 km (25 mi). [2]
The distance eventually became fixed at 42.195 kilometres (26 miles 385 yards), though for the first years it was variable, being around 40 kilometres (25 mi)—the approximate distance from Marathon to Athens.
Joan Benoit Samuelson's victory in the marathon at the Los Angeles ... approved the addition of two distance races, the 3,000 meters and marathon. ... At the first modern Games in Athens in 1896 ...
[14] In 1896, at the first modern Olympics, the very first modern-day marathon was run. To honor the history of Greek running, Greece chose a course that would mimic the route run by Athenian army. The route started at a bridge in the town of Marathon and ended in the Olympic stadium. Another event in the ancient Olympic Games was the pentathlon.
Since 1990, the Athens Classic Marathon has often served as the Greek national championships for the marathon event. [ 11 ] [ 13 ] Since 2007 the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races has organised an annual International Marathon Symposium in Marathon town the day prior to the race.