Fun facts!
Origin
The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, the Greek messenger. The legend states that, while he was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September 490 BC,[3] he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or simply raid,[4] hence claiming their authority over Greek land. It was said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, and burst into the assembly, exclaiming “we have won!”, before collapsing and dying.[5]
Modern Olympic marathon
When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the glory of ancient Greece. The idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks.[15]
The story of Philippides is the rare example where the myth is actually toned down compared to reality. Absolutely brilliant story.
I feel like I’m missing something. What’s the myth and what’s the reality?
The common story is “he ran from Marathon to Athens to alert Athens of the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon, and promptly died after doing so”.
The reality is that before the battle, he ran the much longer distance from Athens to Sparta over 2 days to ask for Spartan aid in the upcoming battle. Sparta said they would help, but could not leave for a few days due to religious reasons (I’ve seen some sources cite a religious festival, and others say it was because they could only set out under a full moon). So Philippides then ran back to Athens to tell them. Sparta would not arrive until after the battle, but Athens won anyway.
There are some claims that then Philippides ran back to Athens as per the common story, but these are attested much later and so are likely untrue.
Holy hell, sparta to Athens in two days?
Well I opened Google maps and it is 2 days 3 hours lol. 233km on modern roads. If he’d run on an average 10km/h for 12 hours per day total, yes it would be barely possible I guess. So it is indeed believable, but dude was really rad.
Pheidippides nuts lmao gotem
Define “fun”. It’s still a grueling ordeal, about pushing the human body much closer to its’ limits than it is at rest state, via a constant, monotonous, extended strain on it.
“Fun” would be a 5K.
Modern YouTubers: let’s see if I can run this marathon for fun with absolutely no training after years of eating nothing but Cheetos and funions.
we’re gatekeeping fun now, I see. NO having fun when running a marathon. it’s a HARD rule. are you smiling while you run? fuck you. you’re not doing it right. you should be wincing in pain, you pussy! /s
sheez most marathoners will tell you the grueling ordeal is the fun part.
Ignoring the fact that “funny” and “fun” are not synonyms, running is absolutely fun. It’s type 2 fun, not the quick dopamine hit of watching a movie or playing a video game, but I absolutely love running and would definitely describe it as “fun”.
Absolutely I do. And the process of training for it.
In '21 I was training for my first marathon before I got an injury and had to stop. In '22 I was better and trained for a marathon, where I felt amazing about achieving my goal time of 3:15. I also enjoy triathlons, which is part of why I’m not doing a marathon in '23 or '24, but right now I’m thinking I’ll probably try for a 3:00 marathon in '25. The burn in your legs and lungs doesn’t always feel great while you’re running, but it doesn’t take long afterwards before you absolutely love it.
Not everyone runs it in the shortest time possible. My longest run is probably close to a half marathon. It wasn’t fast and it was fun. If it weren’t fun, I wouldn’t have done it.
That being said, some people who run it in the shortest time possible probably find it fun too.
“For fun” and “funny” are different things, though. I’ve turned down loads of offers to run marathons from friends who do it for fun.
