The Craziest Marathon May Have Been the First (1896)

The first competitive marathon was in 1896. It was a race representing the legend of a marathon run thousands of years ago, from necessity. The first marathon is much different than marathons today. The intention was to win, and if you couldn't win, why even finish? 

In Marathons Run today, the goal is to finish, not necessarily to win, for most runners. We're not going 100% out the entire time. We fuel and hydrate properly. We are able to pace ourselves to get there, but back in 1896, that wasn't the case

Start off sprinting - Continue sprinting - When it hurts, sprint hard. That was the strategy.

In the end, only a few people finish the race.  And an underdog came from behind to win.

It turns out the underdog wasn't expecting to win that day, and with the knowledge we have now, he was the one who probably paced correctly. He went out slow with his friends, then up, pushed too hard, and then finished with a negative split. This allowed him to reserve the energy for the proper time of the race, get the fastest time and win the first marathon ever.

Recorses:  

• Official Olympic Games Book PDF
• Interview Account of the first marathon
• Karl Lennartz Interviews Luis 1936

The story presented in the video was a combination of these three resources.  You will notice there are discrepancies in these recent horses. Luis recounts that there were 17 runners, whereas the official book says there were 25. There are minor facts like this that are glossed over for the purpose of the story in the video.  after all, finding the exact truth seems to be a matter of who you ask, but the big facts are the ones that we attempted to present to keep the story as true as the historical data is possible.