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![The 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul, South Korea.
[David Madison—Duomo]](https://web.archive.org/web/20091226023721im_/http://www.britannica.com/static/bps-static-content/20091214-1807/images/darwin/shared/spacer_htc.gif "The 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul, South Korea.
[David Madison—Duomo]")
The 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul, South Korea.[Credits : David Madison—Duomo]
Abebe Bikila running barefoot to a record-setting victory in the marathon at the 1960 Olympics in …[Credits : UPI/Bettmann-Corbis]
Abebe Bikila (wearing number 11) running barefoot to a record-setting victory in the marathon at …[Credits : © AFP/Getty Images]
Waldemar Cierpinski wins the marathon at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal[Credits : Frank Barratt—Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
Frank Shorter, wearing number 1014, running the marathon at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West …[Credits : John Dominis—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]
Emil Zátopek running the marathon at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.[Credits : © Nat Farbman—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]
![The 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul, South Korea.
[Credits : David Madison—Duomo]](https://web.archive.org/web/20091226023721im_/http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/19/2319-003-962ABE06.gif "The 1988 Olympic marathon in Seoul, South Korea.
[Credits : David Madison—Duomo]")
long-distance footrace first held at the revival of the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. It commemorates the legendary feat of a Greek soldier who, in 490 bc, is supposed to have run from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 40 km (25 miles), to bring news of the Athenian victory over the Persians and then expired. The story of this messenger from the Battle of Marathon was later conflated with the story of another Greek soldier, Pheidippides, who ran from Athens to Sparta in advance of the fighting. Appropriately, in 1896 the first modern marathon winner was a
... (100 of 2070 words)
Learn more about "marathon"
Aspects of the topic marathon are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
A marathon is a footrace with a distance of exactly 26 miles and 385 yards (42.2 kilometers). Marathon runners usually do not run on a track. Instead they run over land, including city streets.
On the plain of Marathon in Greece, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Athens, may be seen a great mound nearly 50 feet (15 meters) high. Beneath it lie the remains of 192 gallant Athenians who gave their lives in 490 BC to preserve Greece from conquest by the Persian forces of Darius the Great (see Persian Wars). The mound raised by their fellow citizens to commemorate these heroes was excavated in 1890 and the relics uncovered.
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