Re: [RC] The REAL history of the marathon - Truman Prevatt
Most likely like much of our "accent" history - the real turth will
never be known. I suspect if the run was not much more than a myth, the
inclusion in the modern games was political and symbolic. But our
modern Olympic are a study in politics and symbolism so it seems
fitting.
Events that should not be not the Olympics now are it's cornerstone.
Nonetheless as long as women's beach vollyball is not recovered I'm
fine with that ;-).
Truman
Barbara Goldthorpe wrote:
Okay, I gotta clear this up. The
history of the marathon stems back to legend that Pheidippides ran from
Marathon to Athens, cried, "Rejoice, we conquer!" and fell down dead.
This run was documented 600 years after the Persians invaded the plain
of Marathon with intent to enslave the city of Athens. The Athenians
sent Philippides the messenger to Sparta to call for aid (150 miles
total). He managed this in less than 2 days. One account of this part
of Greek history claims that Philippides also made the run from
Marathon to Athens and then dropped dead. However, this seems unlikely
after running to Sparta. Additionally, accounts of the battle
documented close to the time it actually occurred did not note the
runner at all. It was corroborated by Greek historians 6 centuries
after the actual event. If it even happened at all, it was certainly
not Philippides. Later on, Philippides' name became Pheidippides and
Robert Browning continued the legend by writing about it in his Dramatic
Idylls in the 19th century.
When the Olympics were reinstated in
1896, a Frenchman named Breal decided to add the Marathon to the
Olympics as a final event. The distance at that point was not
official, and when it was run for the first few Olympic games, it
fluctuated. It was finally determined as 26.2 miles, and has remained
that.
Don't know much about endurance
riding, but I do know about running (and some really cool martial arts
stuff too!)
