Some 12,000 runners are expected to participate Sunday’s 42-kilometre (26-mile) race, a threefold increase over last year, in this celebration of the victory of Democracy over Totalitarianism.
"The 2,500-year anniversary of the battle of the defeat of the Persian empire by citizen soldiers from the democratic city states of Athens and Platea.
Panathenaic (all Greek) Stadium in central Athens.
According to history, the distance from Marathon to Athens was first run by Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger who in 490 BC dashed to the city to announce victory ''Niki'' over the Persians, before dying of exhaustion.
Athena Nike Temple, a top the Acropolis, Athens.
Run on a four-lane concrete avenue through the urban districts of east Athens with a finish at the ancient all-marble Panathenaic Stadium, site of the 1896 Olympics, the race is a challenge for runners as much of it is uphill.
Olympian Zeus Temple in foreground, Panathenaic Stadium in background, central Athens.
When the modern Olympic games were inaugurated in 1896 in Greece, the story of Pheidippides was revived by a 24.85 mile (40,000 meters) run from Marathon Bridge to Olympic stadium in Athens. Traditionally the final event in the Olympics, the first organized marathon on April 10, 1896 was especially important to all Greeks. Greece was hosting those first modern Olympic Games. The Greeks had yet to win a medal, and had one final chance to bring glory to their nation. Twenty-five runners assembled on Marathon Bridge. The starter said a few words and fired the gun, and the race was on. "The excitement of the crowd waiting at the finish line of Athens' ancient Panathenaic stadium was beyond description" writes the Greek historian Quercetani. Spiridon Louis, a Greek postal worker from the village of Marusi and veteran of several long military marches, crossed the finish line a full seven minutes ahead of the pack. His time was 2 hours, 58 minutes, 50 seconds for the 40 kilometer distance (average pace of 7:11 minutes per mile). When it was all over nine runners finished, 8 of them Greeks. The host nation was ecstatic, and the marathon was born.
At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26.2 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with the 2.2 miles added on so the race could finish in front of royal family's viewing box. After 16 years of extremely heated discussion, this 26.2 mile distance was established at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as the official marathon distance.
Today, marathons have become a running tradition throughout the world. Yet the annual Marathon at Athens, where it all began, has a tradition and an appeal like no other. In 1996, the 100th anniversary of the modern Athens Marathon, more than 3,000 runners from every part of the world gathered to run in the footsteps of Pheidippides.
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