Why do marathons

If none of the other reasons motivate you, then turn your focus outward. Run a marathon to inspire others to do something they thought was too tough or impossible. When others see you train and cross that finish line, someone will follow your lead and start running. They might even run their own marathon or face a different fear. Sign up for your next race. More Running Articles. Look for this banner for recommended activities.

Cancel Yes. Join Active or Sign In. All rights reserved. Go Premium. Need Help? Learn More Customer Login. By Karen Janos For Active. Karen Janos Karen Janos is a freelance writer who took up running at age 36 and never looked back.

She has completed the New York City Marathon twice and many other shorter road races as well. She loves to help new runners find their running legs. Karen Janos is a freelance writer who took up running at age 36 and never looked back.

Failing to remedy the root cause is a recipe for a recurrence. Even though running injuries are common during marathon training, there are several steps you should take to minimize your risk.

The first is to train smartly. Runners who do too much too soon, overdo it in general, or train too sporadically are all at increased risk for musculoskeletal injuries. The body needs time to adapt to training, and recovery and rest are also critical for tissue repair. Make sure you work with a coach or get a proper training plan.

Secondly, make sure you warm up for your training runs and races. He also urges all runners to stretch. It is also important to make sure your shoes fit properly and are changed every miles to ensure they still provide the support and cushioning you need.

Lastly, Rowley recommends eating a diet full of lean protein , complex carbohydrates, and fresh greens, as well as drinking plenty of water. To the uninitiated, it might seem like marathoners like their lingo almost as much as the post-race brunch. While popular thought used to be that DOMS was the result of lactic acid in the muscles, this is not true lactic acid is metabolized and removed. You might need to put your favorite pedicurist on speed dial once you start marathon training.

Though certainly the gravity of black toenails or even toenail loss pales in comparison to true injuries, toenail maladies are so ubiquitous among marathon runners that there are memes declaring them a rite of passage. That repeated contact can lead to blood forming under the nail, which in turn can lead to the nail falling off. Sure, some of this is inevitable, but if it's happening often, it's likely that the shoes don't fit properly. Along those same lines, experiment with different sock thicknesses.

Most people don't immediately think of kidney damage when they think of the common risks of marathon running. However, according to research conducted at the Yale University School of Medicine, 82 percent of marathoners experienced acute kidney injury AKI. AKI affects the kidneys' ability to filter waste from the blood and balance fluids and electrolytes. Fortunately, this condition typically resolves within 48 hours with proper rehydration.

A subsequent study found that runners who experienced AKI during a marathon were particularly heavy sweaters, losing approximately four liters during the race—two liters more than marathoners without AKI.

According to Cane, with proper race hydration , including the ever-important electrolytes such as sodium and potassium, it should be possible for all runners to avoid AKI. After all, getting regular exercise has been shown to correlate to a more robust immune system.

Marathoning also has many upsides, which is probably why over a million people around the world toe the starting line for a marathon every year. Marathon running has been shown to improve markers of cardiovascular health.

For example, research has shown that it can decrease blood pressure and resting heart rate. It may also reverse the aortic stiffening process that naturally occurs with aging. If you've heard of the notorious "runner's high," you are likely aware that running for long periods of time can bring on feelings of euphoria. A century before, once running had ceased to be the most efficient means of relaying messages, those wealthy people who had employed couriers had discovered another purpose to running.

It provided an ideal spectacle upon which to lay bets. Races were arranged solely for this purpose throughout most of the nineteenth century. The clubs were put under the regulation of the Amateur Athletic Association, formed in Oxford in A stand-off developed in which De Coubertin was decidedly with the amateurs.

An Italian had his entry to the inaugural Olympic Marathon turned down on the grounds that he was professional. But a Marathon was as good a race on which to gamble as any other, perhaps more so, as its duration allowed for a greater repertoire of dirty tricks to be brought into play.

An English builder, Len Hurst, collected the money by recording The distance was quoted as 40km, but methods of measurement were unreliable and could be subject to the influence of ambitious organisers eager for fast times. Over in the United States, the New York Athletic Club organised a Marathon over 25 miles — almost an imperial conversion of the earlier races, being The groundbreaking nature of the race was demonstrated by only 10 of the strong field finishing, the first of them in a time almost half an hour slower than Louis.

The runner who had retired at 23km in Athens was Arthur Blake, a member of the Boston Athletic Association who was not at all put off by his first abortive experience. The race has been held every year since except for when a military Marathon relay substituted , making Boston the oldest Marathon race in the world. Like the earlier New York race, it was run from point to point, mainly downhill from Ashland it now starts a little further west in Hopkinton to downtown Boston.

The winner was the New York victor, John McDermott, who improved to — although the course length was given as 39km. Apart from Boston most Marathons continued to be held over 40km or 25 miles, including both the Paris and St Louis Olympic races — although the St Louis race, exceptionally, turned out to be over distance. Races spread to South Africa and England, the host country for the Olympics.

Preserving the royal theme, the start was to be at Windsor Castle. The length was fixed at 26 miles A late request from the Queen, to move the start back to the East Lawn of Windsor Castle, from where it could be seen by the royal children in their nursery, added a further yards m.

Those yards proved too much for the first over the finishing line, the Italian Dorando Pietri. Pietri had run a relatively steady race, although nearly all runners started off at a furious pace the leader passing 10 miles within 57 minutes. By the last few miles the pace of most runners was at least two minutes per mile slower. Shortly before entering the Stadium Pietri overtook the South African Charles Hefferon, who had led the race from 15 miles.

Catching the leader proved too much, and on the track Pietri staggered and fell four times before being assisted over the finishing line by race officials. Less fortunate was a Portuguese competitor in the following Olympics held in Stockholm.

But Marathon day dawned hot, and the race was set off at Lazaro reached 30km before he collapsed and was taken to hospital. Suffering from heat exhaustion, he died the following day.

This is the only instance of death in Olympic Marathons, although fatalities in mass-participation Marathons do occur. In several countries race organisers now require medical certificates, much as Lazaro had produced, before confirming any entrant. The specific Marathon distance determined so haphazardly in London was eventually adopted as the official length of a Marathon, but not until 16 years later. The distance stands today in metric form as 42,m. Meanwhile Marathons continued to be run at varying distances, the longest of which was probably the Olympic Marathon in Antwerp, at 42,m.

Another consequence of the London Olympics was that the British, disappointed by the poor performances of their runners who had led the mad charge out of Windsor , held an annual Polytechnic Marathon, named after the organising club, over the same course. This became the stage for many world-beating performances, from the inaugural race in Henry Barrett, through the golden years of Jim Peters —4, during which he reduced the world record to , and then to the s Basil Heatley, ; Buddy Edelen, ; Morio Shigematsu, Apart from the Olympic Marathon and Boston, there were few other significant races established before the Second World War.

After Marathons were started in Japan at Fukuoka , Twente in Holland and the Athens Classical Marathon was resurrected over the original course with an additional m in The Japanese took to Marathon running with enthusiasm, and by the s the Fukuoka race was indisputably the best in the world. It was an elite race, featuring the top Japanese and a few runners invited from overseas, and drew widespread public attention.

Other races at this time may have had more runners, although none had more than a few hundred, but no other had the quality of Fukuoka.

Toru Terasawa had already run in , but in the race the Australian Derek Clayton reduced the record to Clayton purportedly beat his own record time in in Antwerp, recording The figures had a spurious accuracy to them.