The other day I read that it's the 2,500th birthday of the marathon. I didn't know the race's history, so here's a recap of the marathon's history as written by the FT...
Back in 490BC, so the legend goes, a runner called Pheidippides was sent from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, carrying news of a crucial Greek victory against the invading Persians. Upon delivering his message, Pheidippides is said to have dropped dead. His legacy is the marathon, now run by hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year.
Pheidippides covered about 25 miles, the distance roughly replicated when the modern Olympics were established in 1896. Twelve years later, at the first London Olympics, the race was extended. The marathon began in Windsor and finished at the Olympic stadium at White City in west London - exactly 26 miles - but runners were required to go a painful extra 0.2 miles so that King Edward VII, relaxing in his royal box, could see the finish.
Training for a marathon takes a lot of time, effort and dedication, and it's hard. I believe most people can train for and complete a marathon (given that they're in relatively good health and they don't have any injuries), but I also believe a lot of people are discouraged by the monstrous training schedule. So, I include below a copy of my actual training schedule, alongside the schedule I attempted to follow. I tracked my daily training for 4 months, and as you'll see it's hardly an exact match to what I was supposed to do (click to enlarge).
During the four months I ran over 420 miles, and looking back that's hard to believe. I got blisters, my knees stopped working, I got sick a few times and I travelled a lot. But this was my fourth marathon, so none of this was new to me...all part of the fun of running a marathon!!
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