With running contests now becoming a culture in Nigeria and the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon just a few hours away, let us look at a few marathon facts .

1. Marathon is actually the name of  city in Greece. Legend has
it that upon the Greek victory over
the Persians in 490 B.C. a soldier
called Pheidippides ran 25 miles
from the battlefield in Marathon, to Athens to deliver the
news. After he arrived,
Pheidippides yelled out, "Rejoice,
we are victorious.” he then
collapsed and died.

2. The first modern-day
Marathon was held in the 1896
Grecian Olympics. It was 24.8
miles long and it saw 17
participants running all the way
from the Marathon Bridge to the
Olympic Stadium.

3. The first winner of
the very first Olympic marathon
was a Greek named Spiridon
Louis.

4. From 1896 till 1908's London
Olympics, marathon distances were
approximately 25 miles.
The length was originally intended
to be 26 miles however Queen
Alexandra requested that this
distance be extended to the East Lawn of Windsor Castle, so that the royal
children could watch the race from
their nursery, thus making the it 26.2 miles (42.195km). This distance became the international standard for all marathons since 1924.

5.  The Boston Marathon,
which started in 1897, is the
oldest yearly marathon in the
world.

6. The world’s fastest
marathon runner is Dennis Kimetto of Kenya. He finished 2:02:57 in 2014 Berlin Marathon.

7. The world’s fastest
female marathon runner is Paula
Radcliffe of USA, who finished the
2003 London Marathon in 2
hours, 15 minutes, and 25
seconds.

8. The oldest male
marathon runner is Fauja Singh
who completed a marathon in 8
hours, 11 minutes and 6
seconds at age 100.

9. The oldest
female marathon runner is
Gladys Burrill who completed a
marathon at age 92.

10. One in 200,000 people will
experience a sudden cardiac
arrest during a marathon.

11. The total distance of
a marathon is 26.2 miles which
is about 504 times the size of
a standard football field.

12. The biggest marathon
events are: the NYC Marathon,
Boston Marathon, Chicago
Marathon, Berlin Marathon,
London Marathon and Tokyo
Marathon.

13. In the 1984 Olympics,
Haitian runner Dieudonne
Lamothe became the final
finisher (78 ). He later
revealed that dictator “Baby
Doc” Duvalier’s henchman had
threatened to kill him if he
didn’t finish.

14. Human beings are the
best long-distance runners on
Earth, beating horses and
cheetahs.

15. Amber Miller gave
birth hours after finishing the
Chicago Marathon, which she
finished in 6 hours, 25 minutes
and 50 seconds.

16. Men aged 49 are at
higher risk of cardiac arrest
during and after a marathon.

17. Kenyan men hold 6 of
the top 10 fastest times in a
marathon, most of them coming
from a tribe known as Kalenjin.

18. The youngest marathon runner is Budhia Singh, an Indian slum child had run over 48 marathons before the age of 5. He is now 9 and on a quest to be one of the greatest in the world despite massive outrage from Human Rights groups. He's even inspired an HBO documentary called 'Marathon Boy.'

Nice one. As usual, no statistics from Nigeria.

thesicilian:
Nice one. As usual, no statistics from Nigeria.

none yet, but we'll get there

lalasticlala!!!

Paula Radcliffe is from the UK.
You're right about no. 17 , they're very gifted tribe in distance running. Remember that there are also good distance runners from other ethnicities as well, Kenyan and non kenyan most notably oromos from Ethiopia who give us a hard time on the track.

MtuMsuper:
Paula Radcliffe is from the UK.
You're right about no. 17 , they're very gifted tribe in distance running. Remember that there are also good distance runners from other ethnicities as well, Kenyan and non kenyan most notably oromos from Ethiopia who give us a hard time on the track.

yes you are right about the Ethiopians but out of 5 top marathon finishers, 3 to 4 Kenyans would make the list. In the just concluded Tokyo Marathon the first 6 finishers were Kenyans. They are just dominant.