In this minute you can hear the sounds of people running in the London Marathon.
A marathon is a long-distanced race which is officially 42 km or 26 miles long!
The name marathon comes from an Ancient Greek legend. The story goes that a messenger called Philippides was sent from the Battlefield of Marathon to Athens to tell everyone about the Persian defeat. According to legend, he ran so fast that he tragically collapsed and died when he reached his destination.
The organisers of the modern Olympics named the long-distance running event the ‘marathon’ in order to remember Philippides and Ancient Greece, where the Olympics was invented thousands of years ago.
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