And we’ll all participate, at a distance, tomorrow in the London Marathon and others that run and run.
And it has run since 490BC when soldier Pheidippides ran the approximate 26 miles 285 yards from Marathon to Athens.
To report on the Greeks’ victory on the battlefield against the invading Persian Army.
Only, of course, it was a race in name only as he had no competitors, more a race against the clock really.
You Sphinx you know your Marathons
If we’re really looking for a marker for a very long running race we should look to the Egyptians.
And King Taharka who instituted a 100km race for his military, equivalent to the modern ultradistance event.
And which has has been revived as the Pharaonic 100km.
From the Hawara pyramid at El Faioum to the Sakkara pyramids to the south-west of Cairo.
Boston Marathon Party
Such distances were beyond the imagination of the organisers of the first Modern Olympics in 1896, officially the first Marathon race.
But the theatre of the abbreviated race caught the imagination of nations and was reprised in the New World.
And as is so often the case New York and Boston contest that they were the architects.
Although our friends in Beantown have validated their claim by holding theirs every year since 1897, the longest-running annual Marathon.
And hard on their heels
Yonkers in New York was hard on their heels in 1907, with South Africa bunching up in 1921.
The oldest annual Marathon in Europe might not be where you’d expect.
With the Kosice Peace Marathon in Slovakia, which dates back to 1924 attracting 10,000 runners annually.
Asia and specifically Korea and Japan caught up before and after the Second World War.
London for charity
Today Marathons are run in cities all around the world.
With the Big Five considered to be Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York.
All something to dwell on if you’re on the London route tomorrow or even running it.
The London Marathon and others that run and run.
And know too that you’re contributing to the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event.
With more than £1.3bn raised for charity since 1981.
And if you want a travel provider to take the strain while you train let Sports Tours International do your heavy lifting.