History : 4 posts

You all know that 42k195.com was named after the official distance of the marathon race. photo credit: annnna. But most of the time people don’t know why it was set to 42k195. Most of the non marathon runners I ask the question answer that this weird number must be due to the conversion from imperial units to the metric system (or the other way round). It is not. The distance in miles is 26...

Tomorrow Paris will host it’s annual marathon. It will be the 32nd to be be run in the French Capital. But did you know that in fact the first marathon to be run in Paris was run in 1896. It was on July 19th, just a few month after the first Olympic marathon that was run in Athens during the first modern Olympiad. Photo by courtesy of Gadl It was the first marathon to be run in France. 191 r...

Paavo Nurmi is a finish long distance runner. Today, he may not be as famous as Nokia, but he did a lot to make Finland known in the world in this time.It all happened during the 1920s, Finland had just gained its independence from Russia(in 1917) and was working hard to establish its place among the concert of free nations.During those 10 short years, Paavo Nurmi dominated middle and long distance...

We all know that Boston hosts the oldest marathon in the world. But do you know which is the oldest marathon in Europe ?Athens, London, Paris, Berlin ?No, no.Europe’s oldest marathon is in Slovakia. It is the Košice Peace Marathon which was first held in 1924.After witnessing the Olympic marathon in Paris, three Slovakian official returned to Košice with a dream : organize a marathon in the...