Mahler's Monday Morning Motivator # 28 - Phidippides

[Mahler]

Good Morning. I would be willing to bet that most guys into fitness know what a Marathon is. I would also be willing to bet that few would recognize the name Phiddipides. Here is a man that transcends all concepts of human endurance. If you want a stirring retelling of his story, I recommend the segment from a TV movie called “The First Olympics” in which David Ogden Stiers tells of the story of Phidippides to his first Olympians.

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The First Marathon

Setting the Stage
The first two decades of the fifth century B.C. marked one of the great turning points in world history. These were the years of the Persian and Greek wars. The powerful Persian Empire in 546 B.C. extended from Asia to Egypt to what is now Turkey. Greece on the other hand, consisted of a scattering of independent city-states, called poleis. Athens eventually became the largest and most prosperous polis. By the year 490 B.C., the Persian Army was ready to expand their territory and they landed a large force just outside of Athens on the plains of Marathon and prepared for attack.

The Role of Phidippides
The Athenians, vastly outnumbered, desperately needed the help of Sparta's military base to help fend off the attack. Time was short, so the Athenian generals sent Phidippides (or Philippides) a professional runner to Sparta to ask for help. The 140 mile course was very mountainous and rugged. Phidippides ran the course in about 36 hours. Sparta agreed to help but said they would not take the field until the moon was full due to religious laws. This would leave the Athenians alone to fight the Persian Army. Phidippides ran back to Athens (another 140 miles!) with the disappointing news. Immediately, the small Athenian Army (including Phidippedes) marched to the plains of Marathon to prepare for battle.

The Battle of Marathon
The Athenian Army was outnumbered 4 to 1 but they launched a surprise offensive thrust which at the time appeared suicidal. But by day's end, 6400 Persian bodies lay dead on the field while only 192 Athenians had been killed. The surviving Persians fled to sea and headed south to Athens where they hoped to attack the city before the Greek Army could re-assemble there.
Phidippides was again called upon to run to Athens (26 miles away) to carry the news of the victory and the warning about the approaching Persian ships. Despite his fatigue after his recent run to Sparta and back and having fought all morning in heavy armor, Phidippides rose to the challenge. Pushing himself past normal limits of human endurance, he reached Athens in perhaps 3 hours, delivered his message and, with the shouts of the Athenian people ringing in his ears, he died shortly thereafter from exhaustion.

Sparta and the other Greek polies eventually came to the aid of Athens and eventually they were able to turn back the Persian attempt to conquer Greece.

The Beginning of Olympic Marathon Races
Centuries later, the modern Olympic Games introduced a "marathon" race of (40,000 meters or 24.85 miles). The winner was Spiridon Louis, a Greek postal worker from village of Marusi and veteran of several long military marches , His time was 2 hours, 58 minutes, 50 seconds for the 40 kilometer distance (average pace of 7:11 minutes per mile).

At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed to 26 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with 385 yards added on so the race could finish in front of King Edward VII's royal 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.

Source Material:
The Marathon Story: The Battle that Changed Human History
By Paul Ostapuk

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Be it myth or fact, and there is much in the writings of the time to support the fact, this is certainly a story to inspire.
Have a great week, guys.

In Fitness & Friendship,
Mahler

[dbfrank]

Thanks John. Great stuff. Amazing how our mind can over ride our body when it is necessary!

[Lost Dog]

To think that today, many people think that things like Coolmax and air cushioned running shoes with stabilizers are "necessary" just to run a 10k. This guy had much less and ran over 300 miles in just a couple of days time.

[Jean-Paul]

Phidippides would have been fine if only the water table station folks would have been doing their jobs. At the very least, when he finished his run they should have had medics on hand. I am sure that his family filed a lawsuit for negligence against the City of Athens and the Greek Army. A Nike spokesman also stated that this tragedy could have been avoided had he been in their new "air cushion sandals".

Thanks again for the MMM, Mahler! I love reading those. I sorta knew about this... I wasn't aware of the mileage he had put in prior to his fateful run. I always thought that he was kind of a wuss for dying after a measely 26 mile run, but now I know that he had put in several hundred miles before that. And I am quite sure that he wasn't in his Nike Air Running Shoes either!

[Buk]

And don't forget fighting a battle outnumbered 4 to 1 and winning 6400 to 192. I have never seen a battle royale directly procede the marathon, then the top 2 finishers jump straight into a wresteling match to determine the winner.

[Buccaneer]

Great post John, as per usual!

Inspiring and educational.

It amazes me just how far some people can push themselves and it always gets me thinking, "So what's your excuse, pansy?" and I'm fired right back up.

Thanks again for these.