Marathon

   A marathon is any kind of activity that goes on at great length or any test of endurance. In fact, the American language, under the misconception that -thon means endurance or long distance, has acquired many words simply by attaching that ending. Now there are talkathons, telethons, danceaihons, and walkathons. No one has as yet come up with workathon. The word marathon, along with its step-sisters, goes back to ancient times. A marathon was not a race; it was the name of a narrow valley in Greece, where in 490 B.C. the Athenians, with a numerically inferior force, overcame and defeated the Persians. The Persians were so penned in that they were unable to use their cavalry, and the Athenians proceeded to slaughter all 6,400 of them. The Greeks lost only 192. Miltiades, the Athenian general, fearing that the Athenians might surrender to a Persian attack by sea in ignorance of the victory at Marathon, dispatched Pheidippides, his fastest runner, to bring home the news of the victory. Sometime earlier Pheidippides had run to Sparta and back to seek help against the Persians, and, without sufficient rest, raced some twenty-six miles to Athens and gasped out the news: "Rejoice—we conquer," and fell dead.

   When the Olympic games were revived for the first time in 1896, a modern "marathon" was staged, covering 26 miles and 385 yards, to commemorate the famous run from Marathon to Athens. Appropriately, the victor was a Greek.