Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Interesting Facts About Marathons

Question: What were 33 runners in the Berlin marathon disqualified for taking?
(Answer at the end of this post)

How the marathon began: In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks\' success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921.

There are roughly 375 marathons in the U.S. and 800 around the world.

New York had the most people attending their marathon with over 35,000 last year.

The answer to the question is the subway.

4 comments:

Chad and Rebecca said...

really! the subway! all that hard work to make it that far and they take the subway??

Unknown said...

what's taking...
i didn't understand... hahahaha

the story is very interesting. When is your marathon? or you already did??

i miss you auny.
we should meet and run. hahaha

Barbara said...

ups!

the past comment is mine.

AUNY said...

My marathon is this Saturday!