Men and women in spacesuits and the front and back of horses, it’s Marathon mania on London Marathon Day.
So we’re going right back to the start to 490BC and Philippedes who famously ran 26 miles 385 yards to warn Athens the Persians were coming.
Because, of course they didn’t have social media back then.
Nor sat-nav, cars or even signposts which of course we all have now.
Marathon, signposts for which you can see in the Greek capital, obviously makes a big thing of Philippedes.
And his modern-day successor Spiridon Louis, the first Marathon gold-medallist of the 1896 Modern Olympics.
All at the Marathon Run Museum.
Phil steam ahead
Of course the most authentic experience of all is to run Philippedes’s route.
Which you can do in the Classic Athens Marathon Race which runs in 12-13 November.
Maybe best not reminding you here of Philippedes’ fate after he’d crossed the finishing line of the first Marathon.
Phil, by which we’d know him now, had just enough puff left in him to write out the word ‘Nenikikamen’ or ‘we won’.
Before he collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Better maybe try a less severe Marathon.
Run the world
Maybe warm up with a London, Boston (the world’s oldest annual Marathon dating vack to 1897), Berlin (the fastest course).
Or if you really want to get left field then make a bucket list holiday out of it in say, Tahiti.
Where you can join the 1,000 runners in the Moorea Marathon, The Islands of Tahiti.
And pound the pineapple plantations and along the pristine white beaches.
So maybe you want to avoid today’s London Marathon mania well just choose your location.
Because everybody wants to run the world.
