The history of the Marathon

The marathon has a story that goes way back to ancient times, with a good dash of legend mixed in. At this moment it is possible to try online sports betting from 1xBet, and here you can also wager on this competition whenever it is held too.

Let’s talk about a guy called Pheidippides. He was this Greek messenger who’s basically the reason we have marathons today. The story goes that he ran from a battlefield near the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. That’s about 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, give or take. Basically he ran all this distance to communicate to the Greeks that they had defeated the Persians. Bettors can try online sports betting from the 1xBet platform on other highly demanding sports events too.

So, he makes it to Athens, gasps out his message, “Nenikékamen!” which means “We have won!” and then the poor guy keels over and dies. This is quite dramatic. However, historians are scratching their beards wondering if that’s exactly how it went down, but it sure makes for a legendary origin story.

The competition in the modern world

Fast forward to the modern Olympics, which kicked off in Athens in 1896. Now 1xBet live stream is available to follow what is going on at the modern Olympics too.

Some thought it would be cool to honor Pheidippides’ fabled run with a long-distance race, and thus, the marathon was born. The distance wasn’t set in stone right away, though. It started out at about 40 kilometers, give or take. However, it wasn’t until the London Olympics in 1908 that the distance was pegged at 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers). There is a great live streaming available at 1xBet if you want to watch other major sports events too.

Why was this distance chosen? Well, legend has it that the race was extended so it would finish right in front of the royal family’s viewing box. Because, you know, royalty needs the best seat in the house.

Becoming an extremely popular competition

From there, the marathon just exploded in popularity. By the way, there are your favourite virtual sports on 1xbet.ng/en/virtualsports, and here virtual races can be found too.

It was like runners just couldn’t get enough of this grueling challenge. In the beginning, it was just a men’s competition. Women weren’t allowed to compete in Olympic marathons until 1984. The first woman to officially cross a marathon finish line was Kathrine Switzer in the Boston Marathon in 1967. Spend some time on 1xBet to wager on your favorite virtual sports, where marathons can be found too.

Currently there are some highly popular marathon events held in places like:

 

• Boston;
• London;
• Berlin;
• Chicago;
• and New York.

 

The men’s record here is 2 hours, 1 minute, and 39 seconds, set by Eliud Kipchoge in Berlin in 2018.