> Hey be careful George. The first guy that ran that thing dropped dead at
> the finish line. ;^)
> Charlie
Yes, thanks for the warning Charlie! :)
Two comments regarding this:
1. This is a legend that first appeared some 500 years after the battle of
the Marathon. The official historian of the battle did not say anything
about this, and he was the type of guy who loved to tell a good story. So
historians suspect that this is not a real story.
2. Even if it is a true that this newscarrier dropped dead after running
from Marathon to Athens (about 26 miles) to announce "We won", the reason
that this happened is that the previous day or two he had run from Athens to
Sparta and back (150 miles each way) to ask the Spartans to help the
Athenians in the battle. So he was a bit tired, to put it mildly.
The Athens marathon is considered a difficult course. The winner of the
1896 "inaugural" race was a Greek and he finished around 3 hours. My time
goal is 3:30.
Now, I am thinking, maybe my fascination with Olympus has to do with the
Greek origin of the name?
George
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