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[[File:1896 Olympic marathon.jpg|thumbnail|370 px|Figure 1. Three runners training for the first marathon in 1896.]]
The marathon is seen today as gruelling long-distance, usually over 26 mile race. The battle of Marathon, fought between the Greek and Persian armies, and the resulting run by a Greek warrior to tell the victory is usually cited as the origin of this sport. While there is truth in this story, the history of the marathon is complex and its presence in many major world cities shows it still stands as one of the great events that tests human will and skill.
Whatever the accuracy of the story, what we do know is that the ancient Greeks loved running sports and very likely there would have been athletes who trained to run long-distances. Ancient Greek sources discuss training and the use of complicated regimes to train athletes for the ancient Olympics. The origin of many events, including the pentathlon, developed from this.<ref>For more on Greek running sports, see: Woff, Richard. 1999. <i>The Ancient Greek Olympics</i>. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref>
However, because the legend of Pheidippides was so well entrenched after Roman sources began to mention this event, this story became the critical event that helped shaped the development of the modern marathon. When the Olympics were revived in 1896, the idea was to revive a key event in the history of Greece and Athens. Therefore, the marathon was chosen as a commemorative event and that began the history of the modern marathon. Organizers of the Olympics Michel Bréal and Pierre de Coubertin wanted something to tie the modern Olympics with the ancient glory of Greece. The idea was popular and the first winner of the 1896 Olympic Marathon was a Greek runner named Spyridon Louis.<ref>For a history of the first marathon race in the first modern Olympics, see: Holmes, Burton. 1984. <i>The Olympian Games in Athens, 1896: The First Modern Olympics</i>. 1st Evergreen ed. New York: Grove Press.</ref>
==The Modern Sport==
With the introduction of the marathon as a new sport, it soon became popular as an event that was run outside of the Olympics. In 1897, the Boston Marathon began to be an annual event and today is one of six major world marathon events held where the world's top runners compete. The race is the oldest continuing marathon and has always been run on Patriot's day. The holiday symbolizes the first battles of the American Revolution and thus the Boston Athletic Association, who runs the event, uses the date to tie the American struggle for freedom with that of the ancient Greeks.<ref>For more information on the history of the Boston Marathon, see: Derderian, Tom. 2014. ''Boston Marathon a Celebration of the World’s Premier Race''. Triumph Books. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1648811.</ref>
The race length was not standardized in its early history. The Olympics and other events ranged from 24-26 miles. The roughly 26.2 miles distance that now is standard became established by the 1908 London Olympics. Initially, the organizers wanted the race to run from Windsor Castle to the Olympic stadium, the old White City Stadium or Great Stadium. However, it was decided that, as the royal family was in the stadium, it would be good to have a final lap around the main track and then have the race finish. Although this happened for the 1908 Olympics, this length was still not standardized until 1921. By 1924, the Boston Marathon, which by now had emerged as the world's premier marathon running event outside of the Olympics, standardized the distance to conform with the 1908 Olympic length. This now led the way for all international marathon events by the 1920s to be the same length.<ref>For a history of the modern length of the marathon, see: Davis, David. 2012. <i>Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush: The 1908 Olympic Marathon and the Three Runners Who Launched a Sporting Craze</i>. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.</ref>
Surprisingly, given progress in other events after World War II, women were not allowed to run marathon events in many places and in particular the Olympics. In the 1896 Olympics, Stamatis Rovithi became the first woman to run the marathon; however, she did this by not running the official course but rather in a track parallel to the course. She finished about 1.5 hours behind the winner of the race but did pass many men during her running. Violet Piercy was the first woman to be officially timed in a marathon race in 1926, with a time of 3:40:22. Because so few women were allowed to run, this record stood for more than 37 years. In the 1966 Boston Marathon, Roberta Gibb sneaked into the race and ran an unofficial time of 3:21:25, becoming the first woman known to complete the course. In another well-known incident, in 1967 an entrant named K.V. Switzer ran the race. However, the person was really Kathrine Switzer. Race officials only found out it was a woman after the race had begun.
In a somewhat comical event, the officials tried to pull her out of the race during the running once they found out the runner was a woman, but her teammates fended their attempts and she was able to complete the event with a time of over 4 hours. It was only in the 1970s that women's marathons, particularly in Germany, began to be organized. The main issue was many doctors at the time and health professionals strongly believe women's bodies could not cope with the long-distance race. However, it was also the Olympic rules that prevent prevented the women's marathon from becoming official, as it required 25 countries to hold the event for it to be an official event. The same Kathrine Switzer who ran the Boston Marathon began organizing a series of women's running events and obtained powerful sponsorship from legislators and, most importantly, corporate money (Avon in particular). Finally, in the Los Angles Olympics in 1984, the Olympics held it first women's marathon event, won by Joan Benoit from the US with a time of 2:24:52. By then, there were 28 countries now competing in this event for women.<ref>For more on the history of the marathon and women, see: Switzer, Kathrine. 2009. <i>Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women’s Sports</i>. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.</ref>
Kenya stands out as a country that has, disproportional to its population, produced many great runners over the last few decades. This could be because populations there had evolved to use long-distance running. Genetically, Kenyans from the western part of the country have been shown to have relatively efficient bone structures for running that helps them to develop advantages over others. In examples, Kenyan boys training for a few months have been shown to outperform Western runners who had trained for many years. Much of that advantage derives from having a thin physique, long legs, and efficient body mass ratios that have helped runners from Kenya develop an advantage.<ref>For more on Kenya's success with the marathon, see: Pitsiladis, Yannis P, Yannis P Pitsiladis, Vincent O Onywera, Evelina Geogiades, William O’Connell, and Michael K Boit. 2004. “The Dominance of Kenyans in Distance Running.” <i>Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology 1</i> (4): 285–91. doi:10.1079/ECP200433.</ref>
