[sally]

cool trivia

Marathon…26.2 Miles, 26 Miles and 385 yards, 42.2 kilometers. Once upon a time, in 490 BC, the Persians invaded Greece, landing near Marathon on Greece’s eastern coast. As Legend has it, Pheidippides, a runner-messenger for the Greeks, was sent from Athens to Sparta to ask for help. He took 2 days to get there (running some 150 miles). After the battle, in which the Greeks prevailed, Pheidippides then ran back to Athens, going south along the coast and across coastal foothills before arriving in Athens, a distance of about 25 miles from Marathon. Upon his arrival in Athens, he supposedly announced ‘Rejoice. We conquer!’ and then fell dead.