Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thursday Thirteen


My humans are off to Hamburg today where they will be running the Hamburg Marathon on Sunday, April 29th. In honour of them, I bring you:

#17 - 13 Things About the Marathon


  1. A Marathon is 26.2 miles / 42.2 kilometres.

  2. This will be my humans' second marathon. They ran their first in the Fall of 2005, the Prince Edward County Marathon.

  3. 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 miraculously defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping, but moments after proclaiming his message to the city he collapsed dead from exhaustion.

  4. The modern marathon was first run during the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This first Olympic marathon was 40 km (24.85 miles). It was an Olympic race for men only until 1984.

  5. The women's marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles, USA).

  6. The length of a marathon was at first not fixed since all that was important was that all athletes competed on the same course. The exact length of an Olympic marathon varied depending on the route established for each venue so the choice of distance was somewhat arbitrary.

  7. The marathon at the 1908 Olympic Games in London was set to measure exactly 26 miles and to start on ‘The Long Walk’ – a magnificent avenue in the grounds of Windsor Castle. At his own request it was scheduled to be started by King Edward VII personally. It was only on the day before the race that it was extended by 385 yards from its set 26 miles so that the King could start the race in the Great Courtyard of the Castle (385 yards up the hill) and so that the runners would cross the finish line in front of his wife Queen Alexandra in the Royal family's viewing box in the Olympic Arena - so the length became 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards).

  8. A fixed distance of 42.195 km was adopted in 1921 by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) as the official marathon distance.

  9. The world record time for men over the distance is 2 hours 4 minutes and 55 seconds, set in the Berlin Marathon by Paul Tergat of Kenya on September 28, 2003.

  10. The world record for women was set by Paula Radcliffe of United Kingdom in the London Marathon on 13 April 2003, in 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds.

  11. In 2006, in the U.S.A. (the only country I could find statistics for) there were more than 397,000 marathon finishers.

  12. Last year, over 23,000 individuals ran the Hamburg Marathon.

  13. I wish my humans all the best on Sunday! Good luck mom and dad!


42 comments

Kimo and Sabi said...

Hmmm...if you were to add up all the miles we've run up and down our hall,...we'd have run a squillion miles (is that like a marathon?) - good luck to yer beans!

Anonymous said...

I would love to try marathon one day. But I don't know when.

Now all my energy is absorbed by my daily activities...taking care of my hubby, kids and making sure that the house is as clean as how I want it to be...and of course..blogging!

Anonymous said...

I hope your humans beat their personal best records and have a great time while they're at it.

Special K ~Toni said...

Good luck!

Daisy said...

Good luck to your Mom and Dad! That is a long long way to run.

mister jeter harris, hizself said...

good luck to yer mom an dad in dere marathon.
can dey climb da treez, too?
jus wunderin.
luv--yer frend--jh

Gattina said...

Very interesting DH ! You are becoming a living Wikipedia on paws ! Since your mum writes about marathons, I suddenly realize that there are quite a lot, lol ! never payed attention to that before.

Carmen said...

Tell your humans I wish them good luck as well! I am in awe of people who run marathons.

Unknown said...

Good luck to your Mom and Dad! We think that it is really cool that they do this together!

Rosemary B❤️ said...

Good luck to your mommie and daddie. They look in terrifical shape and that is the best thing about running...being healthy and meeting cool people is also great...and the adventures... and wearing cool running clothes, and high quality sneakers....
I bet if you could run the marathon, you would win, Dragonheart <3

We hope you have a fabbie day!

=^..^= said...

I dun fink I cud efer run a marathon... cos I'm always wanting to nap. So I know I cud easily win a napathon, just nefer a marathon. Good luck to your running beans!

~Bombay

Tiki, Kirby, and StanLee said...

Good luck to your parents. They rock! Or parents are too lazy to run that far.

LZ said...

Good luck to your humans! They are very very determined to run that sort of race. The LL would pass out after running for 10 minutes I think.

Kaze

Icon Baxter Bentley said...

Good luck beans!
Thanks for the information about marathons. I had no idea where they originated from. Neat!

purrs,
Icon

Artsy Catsy said...

Good luck to your mom and dad in the Marathon! Dragonheart, maybe you can run with them, in a stroller, of course :-)

Rocky

Forty Paws said...

Good luck to your mom and dad!!

Luf, Us

Tink said...

I admire your humans, Dragonheart! I can't imagine to run for such a distance. I wish I could though...
My TT is a list of 13 things I do on the computer.

Unknown said...

Good luck to your mom and dad, Dragonheart!

Mr. Hendrix said...

wow, that is a lot of running. it makes me sleepy. i'll tely-port over later with my remote control mouse. i don't have thumbs, but i think we can figure out how to make it go.
good luck to your beans!

Christine and FAZ said...

We had a marathon here this weekend but the humans didn't run in it. Your humans are obviously very brave and strong. My humans prefer BBQ, white wine and the odd game of golf/tennis. Purr FAZ

p.s. thanks for the advice on the horse's hooves, nevertheless I think I will stay inside when they are around.

Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...

Good luck to yoor beans. My mom used to be a cross country runner back in high school but she gots her hips and legs messed up in an aksident. We'z gonna come over teleport over tomoro cuz she's gonna be doing da carpets and we hate da spitty rug sucking monster. We'll bring sum of our home made treets (deys furry good) and we can play and nap.

Anonymous said...

Good Luck to your Humans :)

Anonymous said...

Wow! You did some excellent research on marathons! Good luck to your humans on their race.

The Furry Kids said...

We learned a bunch of stuff about marathons today. Good luck to your mom and dad!
Love,
Titus, Tazo, & Earl Grey

Julia said...

Good luck on the marathon run! And have good time :)

And thanks for the facts on marathon history. Happy T13 - and have good day!

Robyn Mills said...

Dragon heart, your parents deserve gold. Good Luck

Oscar the Puppy Cat said...

I loved the lesson! You're a very well informed girl! Now I'm not the running type, I'm more your lazy Tom. But I love that your beans are runners. My Daddy runs, the only thing my Mommy runs is the bank account dry! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Good luck humans! I am impressed since I don't think I could run from here to my mailbox!

Elena Croft said...

I hope your humans have fun on the marathon. We'll be doing a 'heart run' this weekend, not as long but still lots of fun!

Elena

DK & The Fluffies said...

Good Luck Humans!

kuanyin333 said...

Best of luck with the marathon! Great info always on your blog! Happy TT!

Anonymous said...

A lot of information about marathons except the one thing I want to know...why on EARTH would anyone run one? But I'm sure they'll do it brilliantly...

Unknown said...

Wishing your mom and dad good luck, Dragonheart! I´ll keep my fingers crossed for them! =)

Catzee said...

Furry inneresting but I'd rather take a nap.

JAM said...

Good luck to your parents Dragonheart. Who takes care of you while they're away?

Parker said...

Wowie! Please tell your Mommy and Daddy that I wish then Good Luck!

Samantha & Mom said...

Good luck at the Marathon.
Samantha and Tigger

Toffee K. Ripple Fuzzypants & Feline American Angels said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Toffee K. Ripple Fuzzypants & Feline American Angels said...

I deleted my previous comment 'cuz I spelled a bunch of words incorrectly and you know how I am about spellin' ... I must be tired!

Mom said to tell you to tell your parents "Furry good luck!" She's only done a half-marathon, so I guess that only half of your TT would apply to her, huh?
DMM

PeeSsss: My cousin Zoey has a brand new bloggie! Stop by if you get the chance! You can find her at http://mkandthecrew.blogspot.com/

Around Your Wrist said...

excellent information, as always, professor dragonheart.

your mom and dad are impressive. here's hoping they do really well!

love
--suz

Anonymous said...

I want to wish your humans the best in their run. I admire anyone who can do it. It would be a dream of mine but I can never get over a few miles at a time!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Best of luck to your parents, Dragonheart! I admire anyone who can run 26.2 FEET, let alone miles!