Have you ever wondered why a marathon is 26.2 miles?
It was made up. In the 1908 London Marathon the 26 mile and 385 yard course ended neatly in front of the royal box. Which is pretty fitting considering the history of the race.
The event is based on the route of the greek messenger, Pheidippides. He was a professional runner, and perhaps a soldier but history is unclear on that point. Legend has it he ran 25 miles from the battle of Marathon to Athens. He ran the distance to bring word to the athenian leaders that they had won the battle. His last words were allegedly, "Joy to you! We Won!" and according to legend he died immediately after.
Pheidippides didn't just run 25 miles. In his final few days before that run he is believe to have ran over 300 miles delivering messages.
Kind of makes you wonder, what kind of person would sign up for an event reliving that? The best kind of people! So the next time you're running 26.2 (or any distance for that matter) and thinking this run is going to kill me, think again.
At Feetures, we believe people were not meant to sit still. They were meant to move. And that there’s a drive and energy and restlessness pushing all of us to be better.
That's why people plucked a story from ancient history and invented a modern 26.2-mile race out of it just to see if they could run it.
Because they knew the human body wasn’t meant to be still.
They knew it was meant to move.