Who decided how long a marathon is

With over marathons scheduled for this year in North America alone, just about anyone has the opportunity to go the distance. Just long enough to practically break you, but achievable nonetheless. Already mastered the marathon and want to recreate a distance similar to Pheidippides run to Sparta? How long is a marathon? Most often run as a road race, certified marathon courses are always The marathon distance fluctuated in the beginning, but Who holds the record for the fastest marathon?

Hi, I'm Jane! I'm an avid runner who races 5ks to marathons. After a first marathon, I came back to the distance years later running a BQ time of I did a lot wrong for a long time and finally started doing a lot right. Plenty of runners finish marathons and even mile ultramarathons every year, so it's no secret that we as humans are capable of moving our bodies a pretty long distance if we go about it the right Skip to content. Chances are that by now you know a marathon is about 26 miles long.

The evolution of this famous race distance might surprise you. Ready to take a little history lesson? A Change of Pace Foundation September 11, 0 comments marathon , news , Olympic marathon , running history , running statistics , running trivia. Related Posts.

Upcoming Events. November 14 am - pm. November 20 am - pm. April 24, am - am. Coming Soon:. The 38th Annual Davis Stampede. ACoP on Instagram. View on Instagram. Recent News. It provided an ideal spectacle upon which to lay bets. Races were arranged solely for this purpose throughout most of the nineteenth century. The clubs were put under the regulation of the Amateur Athletic Association, formed in Oxford in A stand-off developed in which De Coubertin was decidedly with the amateurs.

An Italian had his entry to the inaugural Olympic Marathon turned down on the grounds that he was professional. But a Marathon was as good a race on which to gamble as any other, perhaps more so, as its duration allowed for a greater repertoire of dirty tricks to be brought into play.

An English builder, Len Hurst, collected the money by recording The distance was quoted as 40km, but methods of measurement were unreliable and could be subject to the influence of ambitious organisers eager for fast times.

Over in the United States, the New York Athletic Club organised a Marathon over 25 miles — almost an imperial conversion of the earlier races, being The groundbreaking nature of the race was demonstrated by only 10 of the strong field finishing, the first of them in a time almost half an hour slower than Louis. The runner who had retired at 23km in Athens was Arthur Blake, a member of the Boston Athletic Association who was not at all put off by his first abortive experience.

The race has been held every year since except for when a military Marathon relay substituted , making Boston the oldest Marathon race in the world. Like the earlier New York race, it was run from point to point, mainly downhill from Ashland it now starts a little further west in Hopkinton to downtown Boston. The winner was the New York victor, John McDermott, who improved to — although the course length was given as 39km.

Apart from Boston most Marathons continued to be held over 40km or 25 miles, including both the Paris and St Louis Olympic races — although the St Louis race, exceptionally, turned out to be over distance. Races spread to South Africa and England, the host country for the Olympics. Preserving the royal theme, the start was to be at Windsor Castle.

The length was fixed at 26 miles A late request from the Queen, to move the start back to the East Lawn of Windsor Castle, from where it could be seen by the royal children in their nursery, added a further yards m. Those yards proved too much for the first over the finishing line, the Italian Dorando Pietri.

Pietri had run a relatively steady race, although nearly all runners started off at a furious pace the leader passing 10 miles within 57 minutes. By the last few miles the pace of most runners was at least two minutes per mile slower.

Shortly before entering the Stadium Pietri overtook the South African Charles Hefferon, who had led the race from 15 miles. Catching the leader proved too much, and on the track Pietri staggered and fell four times before being assisted over the finishing line by race officials.

Less fortunate was a Portuguese competitor in the following Olympics held in Stockholm. But Marathon day dawned hot, and the race was set off at Lazaro reached 30km before he collapsed and was taken to hospital. Suffering from heat exhaustion, he died the following day. This is the only instance of death in Olympic Marathons, although fatalities in mass-participation Marathons do occur. In several countries race organisers now require medical certificates, much as Lazaro had produced, before confirming any entrant.

The specific Marathon distance determined so haphazardly in London was eventually adopted as the official length of a Marathon, but not until 16 years later. The distance stands today in metric form as 42,m. Meanwhile Marathons continued to be run at varying distances, the longest of which was probably the Olympic Marathon in Antwerp, at 42,m.

For the next few Olympics, the length of the marathon remained close to 25 miles, but at the Games in London the course was extended, allegedly to accommodate the British royal family. As the story goes, Queen Alexandra requested that the race start on the lawn of Windsor Castle so the littlest royals could watch from the window of their nursery, according to some accounts and finish in front of the royal box at the Olympic stadium—a distance that happened to be The random boost in mileage ending up sticking, and in the length for a marathon was formally standardized at In America alone, there are now more than 1, marathons each year.