How Long Is A Marathon
Marathon is a long distance running event in which a large number of participants take part, most of them do not take part to win they just want to check their stamina and they want to enjoy the competition. It is combined race; both male and female run on the same route and same course is applicable for both, however, the winners are decided separately. When we talk about marathon or hear about any marathon achievement it is always discussed with the distance of that marathon as it is a game of not only running fast but distance and timing are two major factors on which this game depends upon. So it is very obvious to arise a question in mind for initial learners or readers that how long is a marathon?
Marathon is very old game of human civilization and its history belonged to the ancient Greeks. It is mentioned in Greek history books by Herodotus that a messenger was sent from Marathon to Athens asking help for Persian war and he covered the whole distance between these two cities through Sparta while running so a concept of long distance running was described in that story. However the modern concept of marathon race arose in the end of nineteenth century in 1896 after the successful completion of modern Olympics. At that time there was no governing body of such sports even Olympics was at its initial stage so there were no rules and regulations specified for marathon race. Similarly people ask same question about how long is a half marathon? The standard distance of half marathon is about 21 KM or 13.1 mile and it is usually done on roads.
It was just a cross country race in which everyone is invited. But with the passage of time marathon governing bodies were introduced and they set the specification of race and rules that has to be followed during the race to make this game more reliable and safe to play. They also give many standards for the whole route but these recommendations are not followed at the same time; lot of time was taken in order to standardize and regulate these rules especially for distance measuring methods and distance of the whole rules. BBA is the first governing body which is meant especially for runners, marathon runners or Olympic runners. Boston athletic association BBA is oldest modern governing body of marathon in USA. It was established in 1887 and at that time more than 50% of the Olympian, of 1896 summer Olympics, were already member of that association and BAA also set the Olympic qualification for Olympians at that time.
After the successful completion of summer Olympics 1896, the modern marathon idea was introduced which was inspired form that Olympic Games. And Boston marathon was run first time in April 1897. Mr. Jhon J Mcdermott was the first winner of Boston marathon whose finish time for the whole course is 2:55:10. Here people ask that how long is Boston marathon and they tried to find out answers of such questions. After the successful completion of Boston marathon, marathon game passion spread all over the world and many big cities organized such mega running events which are still held annually. And world’s major marathon organization was established who only has five members London, Chicago, Boston, Berlin and New York, All these cities organize biggest running event of marathon in different days of the year. A common question that people ask who have relation with London is how long is London marathon? Similarly New York residents ask that how long is New York City marathon? All these questions have same answer as the total distance of a marathon race is now made standard and that is about 42 km approx for full marathon course. Besides full marathon there is another category of running, half marathon, which is basically meant for amateur runners.
