The marathon is a long-distance running event of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles 385 yards) that can be run either as a road race or off-road (for example, on mountain trails). History The name marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon.http://www.jeffgalloway.com/retreats/athens.html It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the Senate, exclaiming "nike!", the Greek word for victory, before collapsing and dying due to exhaustion.http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/faq10.html The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD who quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles