The distance of the marathon was set at 26 miles for the London Olympics in 1908. This was the distance from the start at Windsor Castle to the finish in the Olympic stadium. 385 yards was added so the finish line would be in front of the royals' seating area. This was eventually adopted by the IOC as the official distance. Prior to that the distance was not fixed, but the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896 the marathon was an even 40 km.
BTW I once beat Don Kardong, who got 4th place in the Montreal Olympic marathon. Of course we were playing chess, not running. ;-) Scott C. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Barbara and/or Bill Hooper > Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 1:40 PM > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:16397] marathon > > > John ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > > ... explain that the marathon is now "metric", being 42.2 km or > 42 200 m. > > Glad to here that, but who is it that decied that? Is there an > internationally recognized body that establishes the length of > marathons? Or > are you referring to the marathon that will be run in the Olympics? The > Olympic marathon would certainly be a model that many other marathon > organizers would want to copy. > > Regards, > Bill Hooper > > ============ > Keep It Simple! > Make It Metric! > ============ >
