For us, running is a reference to the most human instincts, it is natural almost like breathing. And just as it is said that some athletes have good genes because their parents did high-level sports, just about everyone has running genes. Because we used to do it all once. The marathon is considered the king of all runs. How long is the marathon? What is worth knowing about him?
Where did the marathon come from?
The name comes from the city of Marathon in Greece. According to Herodotus after winning for Greeks battle against the Persians at the Marathon in 490 BCE, the Persian army embarked and sailed towards defenseless Athens. Seeing this, the Greeks went to the city at their best, arriving practically simultaneously with the Persian ships.
This race became the basis of romantic stories, according to which the messenger Filippides ran to Athens to tell the victory and inform the Athenians that the Persian fleet was flowing towards them. After passing this message, he fell dead. In 1879, the British poet Robert Browning wrote the famous poem Filippides on the canvas of this story
Michel Bréal, a French philologist, inspired by the history of the march, suggested Pierre de Coubertin to include a distance run corresponding to the distance from the Marathon to Athens to the program of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens.
The marathon distance is 42 195 m.
How to prepare for a marathon?
Preparations are best to start with running other routes – they will develop a habit and fitness before taking the marathon.
5 km run – not only for beginners
You do not need to have great skills to participate in the 5 km race – unless you care about making a “life” and reaching the finish line among the leading participants. However, to complete it, training once a week is enough. For this reason, some immediately give up the “five”, treating it as a distance too low prestigious and intended for complete amateurs.
Nothing could be more wrong – the 5 km distance is recommended for beginners, but for advanced riders it can be a way to improve their results in longer runs. Many professional marathon runners started by breaking records on “Fridays” – including Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, current world record holder in the marathon.
Half marathon – good entry to the marathon
The half marathon requires much more preparation than 5 and 10 km runs. Covering 21 kilometers takes about two hours, so it is a significant effort for the body. Before starting in the event you have to reckon with training at least 3-4 times a week, and this means that we must have enough time to prepare
For some, reconciliation of preparation with work and private life may be too difficult, which is why a half marathon is a distance above all for people who are serious about running, ready to devote a large part of their free time to training. Participating in a half marathon can be a good skill before an even greater challenge – a 42-kilometer marathon.
