The legend of Marathon

In the Greek city of Athens, women waited to find out if their husbands would win or lose the battle on the plain of Marathon (a place located approximately 42 km away) because their Persian enemies had sworn that after defeating the Greeks they would go to Athens to plunder. the city, rape the women and sacrifice the kids.
Knowing this, the Greeks decided that if the women of Athens did not receive the news of the Greek victory within 24 hours, coinciding with sunset, they would be the ones who would kill their children and then commit suicide. The Greeks won the battle, but it took them longer than expected, so they ran the risk that their women, by ignoring it, would execute the plan and kill the kids and commit suicide afterwards.
The Athenian general Miltiades the Younger decided to send a messenger to give the news to the Greek polis. And here history mixes with legend: Pheidippides, in addition to having been fighting for a whole day, had to travel a distance of between 30 and 35 km to deliver the news, since the city of Marathon is northwest of Athens, a distance away. not much distance. He took so much effort to reach his destination as soon as possible that, when he arrived, he fell exhausted and before dying he could only say one word: "Nike" (victory in Greek).
Another version is given by the historian Herodotus. According to him, Filípides was sent towards Sparta to request military assistance and to be able to repel the invasion of the Persians, who were advancing towards Marathon. According to Herodotus, Philipides ran from Athens to Sparta in two days, traveling 240 km. The founders of the IOC took the first version and set the distance of the race at 40 km, although there is an annual race in honor of this feat called Spartathlon (Spartathlon), which runs the distance from Athens to Sparta.^[1] But there is no evidence that a competition similar to the modern marathon existed in the ancient world. ^[2]
Although many believe that only for this reason the marathon received its name, it is incorrect, since in general the Greek soldiers were excellent runners and in that battle the entire Athenian army had to run a great distance to reach the coast of its defenseless city ​​before the Persian ships. When the Persians arrived they could not believe the incredible strength of these soldiers and they abandoned their attempts at conquest.
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2h15: 25	Paula Radcliffe	United Kingdom	13/04/2003	London
2h18: 47	Catherine Ndereba	Kenya	07/10/2001	Chicago
2h19: 12	Mizuki Noguchi	Japan	25/09/2005	Berlin
2h19: 36	Deena Castor	United States	23/04/2006	London
2h19: 39	Yingjie sun	China	19/10/2003	Pekin
2h19: 41	Yoko shibui	Japan	26/09/2004	Berlin
2h19: 46	Naoko takahashi	Japan	30/09/2001	Berlin
2h19: 51	Chunxiu zhou	China	12/03/2006	Seoul
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