Patch Blog: Why a Marathon?

Remember the first question: “Why Pearl Harbor Day?”

It’s ironic that every Pearl Harbor Day runners from Japan, (who comprise more than 60% of the 25,000 runners) peacefully invade Oahu and make the Honolulu Marathon one of the World’s ten largest marathons.

The next question: “Why a Marathon?”

Perhaps because of the drama. According to tradition, the first marathon was not a sporting event. It was run in the year 490 BC(E) by the Greek runner Pheidippides who ran as fast as he could from the town of Marathon to Athens to proclaim that the Greeks had miraculously defeated the much larger forces of Persia. He ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, and shouted the words: “We are victorious!” Then he collapsed from exhaustion, took his last gasp, and died.

Then, in 1908 at the fourth modern Olympics, the Marathon was, indeed, a sporting event. Dorando, Pietri, an Italian runner, leading the race was staggering badly when he entered the Olympic Stadium for the end of the race. He collapsed several times on the track. The crowd in the stadium thought he would surely die. And the semiconscious runner needed help to cross the finish line. The story was in the media for days. Some even reported Pietri had died in the hospital after the race. What’s more, he didn’t even get the medal because he required assistance!

Just like in an Italian opera! Or a Greek tragedy. It doesn’t get any better than this.

So I picture most Marathon runners in a drama. The word “Marathon” is used as shorthand for extreme endurance and it has a cachet about it. The 1976 killer thriller “Marathon Man” with Dustin Hoffman is a great illustration of the power and drama related to the image conjured with a “Marathon.”

There’s good reason for that. Doing a Marathon has been likened to undergoing major surgery. The stamina of skin, and sinew are all put through difficult trials. Blisters form; muscles cramp. Worst of all, the aches and pains work on your spirit and can bring you down. When you’re hurting at mile 16 and know that you still have more than 10 miles to go, it takes a huge effort not to be seduced. Not to give up.

Remember, a Marathon course stretches 26.2 miles. The distance between the water tower in South Pasadena and the Santa Monica Pier is only 23 miles. If you want to run a full marathon, you need to travel three more miles up Pacific Coast Highway to the intersection of PCH and Sunset Boulevard and then another two-tenths of a mile up Sunset to the Self Realization Temple.

If on a clear day, you stand on a high point near the Eagle Rock or the 134 freeway and stare towards the Pacific Ocean lying in the distance, you can get a sense of how it would be to run along the Pasadena Freeway, through the Downtown, out the Santa Monica Freeway and up Pacific Coast Highway to Sunset Boulevard. It is, frankly, quite impressive.

So, it’s impressive and dramatic to do a Marathon. Those are both good reasons for me to do one. But I’m sure most others wouldn’t see it that way since most people don’t do Marathons.

What about you? Have any of you reading Patch ever ran a Marathon? How hard did you have to train, and how did running it make you feel? Would you do it again?

Next time I’ll describe my setbacks in training for Marathons. How I fell down and then fell behind. And my work to catch up.