response: In 1896 the marathon was one of the original modern olympic events
history: I have been running for 1.5 years to work my way up to a marathon.  Its taking a while! Very interesting. Do you think you can run the total Marathon distance of 26.219 miles? Sure, but I'm not there yet. I can go about 12 miles. I wonder if a marathon has ever been shorter when they were first started. The distance did not become standardized until 1921 for the marathon Wow, how in the world did they keep track of the runner?  Now we have tv cameras following them all and updates. Some people must have cheated.
knowledge: The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921.