It was back in the 1st century CE when Plutarch, in his On the Glory of Athens, first recalled the story of Pheidippides.
According to the legend, the Greek soldier ran the distance between Marathon and Athens (about 25 miles), without stopping and discarding his clothes and weapons to sprint faster, to inform the capital that a Persian invasion had been defeated.
On arriving in Athens, after announcing “Nike!” (“Victory!”), the story goes that he promptly died.
After that historic day, Marathon ceased to be just a city.
These days, while still a gargantuan undertaking, marathons are thankfully a much less life-or-death predicament.
That said, they never cease to provide a great challenge and a breath-taking spectacle.