Buzz
What explains the seemingly 'cursed' length of a marathon? The myth goes that in 490 BCE, the messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. But here's the catch: Pheidippides would have only covered about 25 miles. So, where did the extra 1.2 miles come from?
When marathons first emerged in the modern era in the late 19th century, there was no set distance. During the inaugural Olympic Games in 1896, the race followed Pheidippides's original route, covering about 40,000 meters—or 24.85 miles. A Greek postal worker was the winner of that race, by the way. The distance was slightly increased to just over 25 miles for the next Olympics, and from then on, marathon distances varied, but no official standard was ever set.
The marathon distance hit 26.2 miles in 1908 during the London Olympics. This was to accommodate the royal family's preferences, with the race stretching from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium.
It wasn’t meant to unfold this way. Like other races, the initial plan for the marathon was to cover about 25 miles. However, the royal family had different ideas: They wanted the race to begin right in front of Windsor Castle. Legend has it that the royal children requested a view of the start from the castle nursery. Officials agreed and moved the starting line, adding an extra mile to the course.
And the troublesome final 0.2 miles? That, too, was the royal family’s doing. To ensure the race ended in front of their royal viewing box, the finish line was extended by an additional 385 yards.
Those extra 1.2 miles turned out to be a misfortune. The race leader, an Italian pastry chef named Dorando Pietri, collapsed multiple times in his final stretch toward the finish and had to be helped to his feet. One of the people who assisted him was journalist Arthur Conan Doyle. After the event, Conan Doyle wrote about Pietri’s struggle for the Daily Mail, describing the scene: "Through the doorway crawled a little, exhausted man ... He trotted for a few exhausted yards like a man galvanized into life; then the trot expired into a slow crawl, so slow that the officials could scarcely walk slow enough to keep beside him."
After the London Olympics, marathon distances typically ranged between 24 and 26 miles, but Conan Doyle’s account may have given the 26.2-mile distance an iconic reputation. When the International Amateur Athletic Federation met to standardize the marathon, they selected the old London distance of 26 miles and 385 yards—or 26.219 miles.
In his Reuters article, Steven Downes remarked, "the marathon race may have been as much a Conan Doyle creation as Sherlock Holmes."
