College season kicks off

So, you want a very long race that will

inevitably draw the best runners from all over the globe.

Unlike other races with dull names like the "mile" and the "400 metre," your race commemorates an

ancient Greek town with an unusual path totaling anywhere between 24 and 26 miles with its well-defined distances.

Oh, if you're the founder of the International Olympic Committee and the Modern

Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, that's exactly the strategy for the 1896 Olympic marathon.

The first marathon commemorated the running of soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield near the

town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C., in a nod to Greek tradition.

According to legend, the Pheidippides raced about 25 miles to

announce to some worried Athenians the defeat of the Persians.

He delivered the message "Niki!" (Victory!), then keeled

over and died, not even in mid-season form.

So the first official race from the Marathon Bridge

to the Olympic Stadium was organised by de Coubertin.