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The history of the marathon
The origins of the greatest footrace on earth 17 runners competed in that 1st, modern marathon. None
could have foreseen how the movement would gain impetus over the next
century.
At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with an additional 385 yards added on so the race could finish in front of royal family's viewing box. This added two miles to the course, and is the origin of the Marathon tradition of shouting "God save the Queen!" (or other words relating to the Queen) as mile post 24 is passed. After sixteen years of extremely heated debate, this 26.2 mile distance was established at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as the official marathon distance. In 1966, Roberta Gibb became the 1st woman to run in a major marathon - the Boston - by hiding behind a bush until the start, then joining the male athletes. In 1975, Boston became the 1st marathon to include disabled athletes who are now such an integral feature of the event. As if it weren't enough to subject the tendons and joints to the stresses of that implausible distance, the marathon's history is peppered with almost superhuman accomplishments. Last year, only months after a close encounter with death and consequent major heart surgery, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, with his friend Mike Stroud, succeeded in running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. By the end of the Singapore marathon, Stroud was urinating blood and his blood enzyme levels were so low that his muscles were literally beginning to disintegrate. And yet he managed somehow to carry on, running in London and Cairo before a grand finale in New York. |
What is it that enables the spirit to triumph against such adversity? "The quality you really need with all these tests," Stroud believes, "is a bad memory, so you can remember the good parts and forget the bad."
Columbia Greene CC has varsity teams in men's and women's basketball, women's softball, women's soccer, men's baseball and men's golf (women are eligible).
Click here to read the first part of this article.
worlds greatest marathons
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