Here's your middle-of-the-week brain booster!!!
Have you ever wondered WHY a marathon is 26 miles???? Not 25 miles? Not 30 miles, buuuuuuuuuut 26 miles??? I mean, if you ask me, that seems SUPERRRR RANDOM!!! Soooooooo to be honest with you all, I've never really had a desire to run a marathon...I mean...THATS A LOT!!!
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Now, since my weight loss journey in the last several years, (weeeeeellll my WHOLE LIFE has pretty much been A WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY, I mean literally, for as long as I can remember, even back to 3rd grade, I've been TRYING to lose weight,) buuuuuuuut to clarify, after my weight loss surgery in 2016, I've really gotten into a lot of new physical activities that I never thought I would want to be involved in, hiking, boxing, weight lifting, hiking, bicycling, HIKING, walking ANNNNND 5k races. Now I NEVERRRRR thought I was going to be into all this stuff before hand, I always thought I wasn't that kind of person, buuuuuuuuuut turns out I was WRONG...I just needed to lose another 100+ pounds to realize this.
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Sooooooo STILL, I don't think i'll change my mind but running a marathon, buuuuuuuuut who's to say what will happen over the years as I strive to reach more and more physical goals, with that being said, back to the point, WHY IS A MARATHON 26 MILES???
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Me at my 5k Leftovers Run!!!
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"Did you know???..."
Why a marathon race run is called a marathon???
Sooooooooooo I did some research and came up with some interesting info!!!! Not only can I tell you WHY it's 26 miles I can tell you WHY it's called a MARATHON!!! Sooooooooo long story short, In a nod to Greek history, the first marathon commemorated the run
of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield near the town of
Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. According to legend,
Pheidippides ran the approximately 25 miles to announce the defeat of
the Persians to some anxious Athenians. Not quite in mid-season shape,
he delivered the message "Niki!" (Victory!) then keeled over and died.
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Sooooooo it's called MARATHON, because the runner ran from the town of Marathon Greece to Athens Greece, hence the name, annnnnnnnnd the original marathon WAS 25 miles because that's about how far he ran. HOWEVERRRR, THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, changed all that...
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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—so they, the royals could see better...a distance that happened to be 26.2 miles (26 miles and 385 yards)…
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Which I, MARY FRANCES GINTY, think was a very RUDE AND SELFISH REQUEST OF THE QUEEN!!!
.*Insert eye roll
*Insert eye roll
I mean, the soldier Pheidippides, fell down and DIED after running the first marathon everrrrr, and the queen is just like, oh, can you change the miles so we can have a better view of the race??? Oh, soooo sorry QUEEN, how inconvenient for you, sure, lets just change everything so you can see better...LIIIIIIIKE WOW!!!
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If anyone would like to start a petition with me to change the marathon BACK to 25 miles to honor the soldier, feel free to email me! I mean, don't you think we should honor him and keep the 25 mile marathon as tribute to this brave soldier that DROPPPED DEAD after running it??? Liiiiiiiiiiike HELLLLLLLOOOO!!!
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"Did you know???..."
"...Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllll NOW YOU DO, annnnnnnnnd don't you FORGET IT!!!" (AIO BTV quote;)
.♥Mary Frances :)
P.S. IF they change the marathon BACK to 25 miles, I WILL run/jog/powerwalk/crawl/drag myself over the finish line in completion, as an honor and tribute to that first soldier that ran it!!! Buuuuuut emphasis on IF!!! hee, hee!!! ;)
