Most marathon runners are aware that the the event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens.The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought), which took place in August or September, 490 BC. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "We wοn", before collapsing and dying.
A lesser known fact which I discovered recently is that the word Marathon or Marathos is the Greek name for Fennel(saunf) plant - a herb that was indigenous to the shores of the Mediterraneans. The town of Marathon from which Pheidippedes ran to Athens was named for its fields of fennels.
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