The Modern Marathon and Us

On this date in 1896 Charilaos Vasilakos of Greece won the 1st modern marathon in 3 hours and 18 minutes. The 1896 Olympics were the first of the modern era, and the premier race of those Greek Olympic Games was to be the 26.2 mile journey into Athens and Olympic Stadium. Vasilakos won the inaugural race and the right to represent Greece in the Olympics, but then finished 5th at the Olympic Games to a Greek water-carrier named Spiridon "Spiros" Louis. Yet with his monumental run, the marathon became the standard for long-distance runners everywhere.

The name "Marathon" comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. He was sent from the battlefield of Marathon in 490 BC. to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought.) Pheidippides ran the entire 26.2 mile distance around Mount Penteli and into Athens without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "Νενικήκαμεν" (“'We have won”) before collapsing and dying. The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD.

The Apostle Paul, a fellow sports enthusiast, also wrote about running in the 1st century. Paul loved the Greek games, the celebration of sports and even the obsession with winning: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air (Paul liked boxing too!). No, I buffet my body and make it my slave so that after I have spoken to others about Christ, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize.” (I Corinthians 9: 24-27)

The choice is up to us whether we run the race or sit in the stands while others compete for Christ. But the decision ultimately comes down to preparation and this question: “Do we buffet our bodies with discipline and training or merely buffet them with ‘all-you-can-eat’ consumption”?

Let’s join those in the arena and run!

Scott Sager