LONDON: It's the world's largest marathon, by number of runners. AP Photo / Matt Dunham
The
legend of the marathon is one of triumph, commemorating the messenger
who, in 490 BC, is said to have run without stopping from Marathon,
where an overmatched Greek army had just defeated the Persians, to
announce the victory in Athens, bursting into a meeting of the assembly
to proclaim, “We won!” before collapsing to his death.
These days,
at certain times of the year, people can be found all over the world
putting one foot in front of the other for 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers).
Marathons are spectacles, feats of endurance, a truly global sport—and,
this weekend, the races took on even more significance in the wake of
the bombings that killed 3 people and injured 183 in Boston last week.
There were marathons today in London, Belgrade, and—for the first time
ever—Bethlehem.
