On a bleak October morning, on a freshly paved park road in Vienna, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge recorded an astounding feat of human achievement. He became the first person ever to run a marathon distance in under two hours. The eight-time major marathon winner and three-time Olympic medalist traversed the 26.2-mile circuit in a remarkable time of 1 hour, 59 minutes, 40 seconds.
Arms spread wide, Kipchoge crossed the finish line to a chorus of cheers. He was quickly swarmed by the members of his running team, who lifted him aloft in celebration, a moment of pure joy.
As the legend goes, the first-ever “marathon” also ended in its own joyous culmination, though of a considerably different stripe. Following the defeat of Persian forces at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the victorious Athenian Greeks sent a messenger back to Athens with news of their triumph. The messenger, who Plutarch in his On the Glory of Athens records as either “Thersippus of Eroeadae” or “Eucles,” ran the approximate 26-mile distance between Marathon and Athens, “in full armour, hot from the battle,” without stopping, and, arriving through the gates, shouted, “Rejoice! We are victorious!” and promptly died.
The legend is almost certainly false. Yet Herodotus, the great historian of the Greco-Persian wars, does record the story of Pheidippides, an Athenian long-distance runner tasked before the battle with running to Sparta to ask for help against the Persians. According to Herodotus, Pheidippides ran the 145 miles from Athens to Sparta in one day, and on the next ran the 145 miles back to Athens and presumably on to Marathon and the battlefield.
Nonetheless, it is Pheidippides’s apocryphal run after the Athenians’ victory (nikê in ancient Greek) that is celebrated as the origin of the modern “marathon.”
Perhaps Mr. Kipchoge would like to lace up his custom Nikes for another 118.8 miles more?
