Marathons

Marathons have an interesting history. The story is that Greece and Persia were at war. Greece finally won a decisive battle at a place called Marathon. The runner Pheidippides was sent to give the news to the people of Athens. Pheidippides ran the 25 or so miles, imparted the news, and promptly dropped dead of exhaustion.

Somehow someone thought, “Say, this running sounds like a great idea. We should do it regularly.” Not sure how they skipped the part about dropping dead, but there it is.

So now marathons are held all over the world. And every year, some people wind up dropping dead, and it’s a great mystery. “He was in good health, young, can’t imagine why he dropped dead.” I’ll tell you why: running is bad for you. WTF are these people thinking?

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