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Marathon, Greece

Marathon (Demotic Greek: Μαραθώνας, Marathónas; Attic/Katharevousa: Μαραθών, Marathṓn) is a town in Greece and the site of the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, in which the heavily outnumbered Athenian army defeated the Persians. Legend has it that Pheidippides, a Greek herald at the battle, was sent running from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory, which is how the marathon running race was conceived in modern times. Today it is part of East Attica regional unit, in the outskirts of Athens and a popular resort town and center of agriculture.

History

The name "Marathon" (Μαραθών) comes from the herb fennel, called márathon (μάραθον) or márathos (μάραθος) in Ancient Greek, so Marathon literally means "a place full of fennel". It is believed that the town was originally named so because of an abundance of fennel plants in the area.

In ancient times, Marathon (Μαραθών) occupied a small plain in the northeast of ancient Attica, which contained four places, Marathon, Probalinthus, Tricorythus, and Oenoe, which originally formed the Tetrapolis, one of the 12 districts into which Attica was divided before the time of Theseus. Here Xuthus, who married the daughter of Erechtheus, is said to have reigned; and here the Heracleidae took refuge when driven out of Peloponnesus, and defeated Eurystheus. The Marathonii claimed to be the first people in Greece who paid divine honours to Heracles, who possessed a sanctuary in the plain. Marathon is also celebrated in the legends of Theseus, who conquered the ferocious bull, which used to devastate the plain. Marathon is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey in a way that implies that it was then a place of importance. In mythology, its name was derived from an eponymous hero Marathon, who is described by Pausanias as a son of Epopeus, king of Sicyon, who fled into Attica in consequence of the cruelty of his father Plutarch calls him an Arcadian, who accompanied the Dioscuri in their expedition into Attica, and voluntarily devoted himself to death before the battle.

After Theseus united the 12 independent districts of Attica into one state, the name of Tetrapolis gradually fell into disuse; and the four places of which it consisted became Attic demi, Marathon, Tricorythus, and Oenoë belonging to the tribe Aeantis, and Probalinthus to the tribe Pandionis; but Marathon was so superior to the other three, that its name was applied to the whole district down to the latest times. Hence Lucian speaks of "the parts of Marathon about Oenoë".

Few places have obtained such celebrity in the history of the world as Marathon, on account of the victory which the Athenians here gained over the Persians in 490 BCE (Battle of Marathon). After Miltiades (the general of the Greek forces) defeated Darius' Persian forces, the Persians decided to sail from Marathon to Athens in order to sack the unprotected city. Miltiades ordered all his hoplite forces to march "double time" back to Athens, so that by the time Darius' troops arrived they saw the same Greek force waiting for them.

Although the name Marathon had a positive resonance in Europe in the nineteenth century, for some time that was sullied by the Dilessi murders, which happened nearby in 1870.

In the 19th century and beginning of twentieth century the village was inhabited by an Arvanite population.

The sophist and magnate Herodes Atticus was born in Marathon. In 1926, the American company ULEN began construction on the Marathon Dam in a valley above Marathon, in order to ensure water supply for Athens. It was completed in 1929. About 10 km2 of forested land were flooded to form Lake Marathon.

The beach of Schinias is located southeast of the town. The beach is popular as a spot for windsurfing and the Olympic Rowing Center used for the 2004 Summer Olympics is also located there. At the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics, Marathon was the starting point of the marathon races (for both women and men in 2004). The area is susceptible to flash flooding, because of forest fires having denuded parts of the eastern slopes of Mount Penteli especially in 2006.

Municipality
The municipality Marathon was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:
 * Grammatiko
 * Marathon
 * Nea Makri
 * Varnavas

The municipality has an area of 222.747 km2, the municipal unit 97.062 km2.

Population
The other settlements in the municipal unit are Agios Panteleimonas, Kato Souli, Vranas, Avra, Vothon, Ano Souli and Schinias.

Points of interest

 * The Soros, a tumulus (Greek  Τύμβος, tymbos, tomb), or burial mound, erected to the 192 Athenian fallen at the Battle of Marathon, is a feature of the coastal plain, now marked by a marble memorial stele and surrounded by a small park.
 * Kato Souli Naval Transmission Facility with its 250 m tall radio mast, the tallest structure in Greece.

Sister cities

 * 🇺🇸 Hopkinton, Massachusetts, United States
 * 🇨🇳 Xiamen, China

Notes and references

 * Notes

 * References

title: Marathon, Greece


text:
Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of 42.195 km, usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair divisions. More than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes, as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.

A creation of the French philologist Michel Bréal, the marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896. The distance did not become standardized until 1921. The distance is also included in the World Athletics Championships, which began in 1983. It is the only running road race included in both championship competitions (walking races on the roads are also contested in both).

Origin

The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, the Greek messenger. The legend states that, while he was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September 490 BC, he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or simply raid, hence claiming their authority over Greek land. It was said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "we have won!", before collapsing and dying.

The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appeared in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the first century AD, which quoted from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. This was the account adopted by Benjamin Haydon for his painting, published as an engraving in 1836 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Satirist Lucian of Samosata gave one of the earliest accounts similar to the modern version of the story, but its historical veracity is disputed based on its tongue-in-cheek writing and the runner being referred to as Philippides and not Pheidippides.

There is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend. The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, mentioned Philippides as the messenger who ran from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then ran back, a distance of over 240 km each way. In some Herodotus manuscripts, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides. Herodotus makes no mention of a messenger sent from Marathon to Athens, and relates that the main part of the Athenian army, having fought and won the grueling battle, and fearing a naval raid by the Persian fleet against an undefended Athens, marched quickly back from the battle to Athens, arriving the same day.

In 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Browning's poem, his composite story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend.

Mount Pentelicus stands between Marathon and Athens, which means that Philippides would have had to run around the mountain, either to the north or to the south. The latter and more obvious route is followed by the modern Marathon-Athens highway (EO83–EO54), which follows the lay of the land southwards from Marathon Bay and along the coast, then takes a gentle but protracted climb westwards towards the eastern approach to Athens, between the foothills of Mounts Hymettus and Penteli, and then gently downhill to Athens proper. This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was approximately 40 km long. It was the approximate distance originally used for marathon races. However, there have been suggestions that Philippides might have followed another route: a westward climb along the eastern and northern slopes of Mount Penteli to the pass of Dionysos, and then a straight southward downhill path to Athens. This route is slightly shorter, 35 km, but includes a very steep climb over the first 5 km.

Modern Olympic marathon
When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the glory of ancient Greece. The idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks. A selection race for the Olympic marathon was held on 22 March 1896 (Gregorian) that was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes. The winner of the first Olympic marathon, on 10 April 1896 (a male-only race), was Spyridon Louis, a Greek water-carrier, in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds. The marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics was run on the traditional route from Marathon to Athens, ending at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue for the 1896 Summer Olympics. That men's marathon was won by Italian Stefano Baldini in 2 hours 10 minutes and 55 seconds, a record time for this route until the non-Olympics Athens Classic Marathon of 2014, when Felix Kandie lowered the course record to 2 hours 10 minutes and 37 seconds.

The women's marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles, US) and was won by Joan Benoit of the United States with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 52 seconds.

It has become a tradition for the men's Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, on the final day of the Olympics. For many years the race finished inside the Olympic stadium; however, at the 2012 Summer Olympics (London), the start and finish were on The Mall, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio de Janeiro), the start and finish were in the Sambódromo, the parade area that serves as a spectator mall for Carnival.

Often, the men's marathon medals are awarded during the closing ceremony (including the 2004 games, 2012 games and 2016 games).

The Olympic men's record is 2:06:32, set at the 2008 Summer Olympics by Samuel Kamau Wanjiru of Kenya. The Olympic women's record is 2:23:07, set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia. The men's London 2012 Summer Olympic marathon winner was Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda (2:08:01). Per capita, the Kalenjin ethnic group of Rift Valley Province in Kenya has produced a highly disproportionate share of marathon and track-and-field winners.

Marathon mania in the US
The Boston Marathon began on 19 April 1897, and was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. It is the world's oldest annual marathon, and ranks as one of the world's most prestigious road racing events. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston. Johnny Hayes' victory at the 1908 Summer Olympics also contributed to the early growth of long-distance running and marathoning in the United States. Later that year, races around the holiday season including the Empire City Marathon held on New Year's Day 1909 in Yonkers, New York, marked the early running craze referred to as "marathon mania". Following the 1908 Olympics, the first five amateur marathons in New York City were held on days that held special meanings: Thanksgiving Day, the day after Christmas, New Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, and Lincoln's Birthday.

Frank Shorter's victory in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics would spur national enthusiasm for the sport more intensely than that which followed Hayes' win 64 years earlier. In 2014, an estimated 550,600 runners completed a marathon within the United States. This can be compared to 143,000 in 1980. Today marathons are held all around the world on a nearly weekly basis.

Inclusion of women
For a long time after the Olympic marathon started, there were no long-distance races, such as the marathon, for women. Although a few women, such as Stamata Revithi in 1896, had run the marathon distance, they were not included in any official results. Marie-Louise Ledru has been credited as the first woman to complete a marathon, in 1918. Violet Piercy has been credited as the first woman to be officially timed in a marathon, in 1926.

Arlene Pieper became the first woman to officially finish a marathon in the United States when she completed the Pikes Peak Marathon in Manitou Springs, Colorado, in 1959. Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon "officially" (with a number), in 1967. However, Switzer's entry, which was accepted through an "oversight" in the screening process, was in "flagrant violation of the rules", and she was treated as an interloper once the error was discovered. Bobbi Gibb had completed the Boston race unofficially the previous year (1966), and was later recognized by the race organizers as the women's winner for that year, as well as 1967 and 1968.

Distance
The length of an Olympic marathon was not precisely fixed at first, but the marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were about 40 km, roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. The exact length depended on the route established for each venue.

1908 Olympics
The International Olympic Committee agreed in 1907 that the distance for the 1908 London Olympic marathon would be about 25 miles or 40 kilometers. The organizers decided on a course of 26 miles from the start at Windsor Castle to the royal entrance to the White City Stadium, followed by a lap (586 yards 2 feet; 536 m) of the track, finishing in front of the Royal Box. The course was later altered to use a different entrance to the stadium, followed by a partial lap of 385 yards to the same finish.

The modern 42.195 km standard distance for the marathon was set by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) in May 1921   directly from the length used at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

IAAF and world records
An official IAAF marathon course is 42.195 km (42 m tolerance only in excess). Course officials add a short course prevention factor of up to one meter per kilometer to their measurements to reduce the risk of a measuring error producing a length below the minimum distance.

For events governed by IAAF rules, it is mandatory that the route be marked so that all competitors can see the distance covered in kilometers. The rules make no mention of the use of miles. The IAAF will only recognize world records that are established at events that are run under IAAF rules. For major events, it is customary to publish competitors' timings at the midway mark and also at 5 km splits; marathon runners can be credited with world records for lesser distances recognized by the IAAF (such as 20 km, 30 km and so on) if such records are established while the runner is running a marathon, and completes the marathon course.

Marathon races

Annually, more than 800 marathons are organized worldwide. Some of these belong to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) which has grown since its foundation in 1982 to embrace over 300 member events in 83 countries and territories. The marathons of Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City and Tokyo form the biennial World Marathon Majors series, awarding $500,000 annually to the best overall male and female performers in the series.

In 2006, the editors of Runner's World selected a "World's Top 10 Marathons", in which the Amsterdam, Honolulu, Paris, Rotterdam, and Stockholm marathons were featured along with the five original World Marathon Majors events (excluding Tokyo). Other notable large marathons include United States Marine Corps Marathon, Los Angeles, and Rome. The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon, inspired by the success of the 1896 Olympic marathon and held every year since 1897 to celebrate Patriots' Day, a holiday marking the beginning of the American Revolution, thereby purposely linking Athenian and American struggle for democracy. The oldest annual marathon in Europe is the Košice Peace Marathon, held since 1924 in Košice, Slovakia. The historic Polytechnic Marathon was discontinued in 1996. The Athens Classic Marathon traces the route of the 1896 Olympic course, starting in Marathon on the eastern coast of Attica, site of the Battle of Marathon of 490 BC, and ending at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

The Midnight Sun Marathon is held in Tromsø, Norway at 70 degrees north. Using unofficial and temporary courses, measured by GPS, races of marathon distance are now held at the North Pole, in Antarctica and over desert terrain. Other unusual marathons include the Great Wall Marathon on The Great Wall of China, the Big Five Marathon among the safari wildlife of South Africa, the Great Tibetan Marathon – a marathon in an atmosphere of Tibetan Buddhism at an altitude of 3500 m, and the Polar Circle Marathon on the permanent ice cap of Greenland.

A few marathons cross international and geographical borders. The Istanbul Marathon is the only marathon where participants run over two continents (Europe and Asia) during the course of a single event. In the Detroit Free Press Marathon, participants cross the US/Canada border twice. The Niagara Falls International Marathon includes one international border crossing, via the Peace Bridge from Buffalo, New York, United States to Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. In the Three Countries Marathon, participants run through Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

On 20 March 2018, an indoor Marathon took place in the Armory in New York City. The 200 m track saw a world record in the women's and men's field. Lindsey Scherf (USA) set the indoor women's world record with 2:40:55. Malcolm Richards (USA) won in 2:19:01 with a male indoor world record.

Wheelchair division

Many marathons feature a wheelchair division. Typically, those in the wheelchair racing division start their races earlier than their running counterparts.

The first wheelchair marathon was in 1974 in Toledo, Ohio, won by Bob Hall in 2:54. Hall competed in the 1975 Boston Marathon and finished in 2:58, inaugurating the introduction of wheelchair divisions into the Boston Marathon. From 1977 the race was declared the US National Wheelchair championship. The Boston Marathon awards $10,000 to the winning push-rim athlete. Ernst van Dyk has won the Boston Marathon wheelchair division ten times and holds the world record at 1:18:27, set in Boston in 2004. Jean Driscoll won eight times (seven consecutively) and holds the women's world record at 1:34:22.

The New York City Marathon banned wheelchair entrants in 1977, citing safety concerns, but then voluntarily allowed Bob Hall to compete after the state Division of Human Rights ordered the marathon to show cause. The Division ruled in 1979 that the New York City Marathon and New York Road Runners club had to allow wheelchair athletes to compete, and confirmed this at appeal in 1980, but the New York Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that a ban on wheelchair racers was not discriminatory as the marathon was historically a foot race. However, by 1986 14 wheelchair athletes were competing, and an official wheelchair division was added to the marathon in 2000.

Some of the quickest people to complete a wheel-chair marathon include Thomas Geierpichler (Austria) who won gold in men's T52-class marathon (no lower limb function) in 1 hr 49 min 7 sec in Beijing China, on 17 September 2008; and, Heinz Frei (Switzerland) who won the men's T54 marathon (for racers with spinal cord injuries) in a time of 1 hr 20 min and 14 sec in Oita, Japan, 31 October 1999.

World records and world's best
World records were not officially recognized by the IAAF, now known as World Athletics, until 1 January 2004; previously, the best times for the marathon were referred to as the 'world best'. Courses must conform to World Athletics standards for a record to be recognized. However, marathon routes still vary greatly in elevation, course, and surface, making exact comparisons impossible. Typically, the fastest times are set over relatively flat courses near sea level, during good weather conditions and with the assistance of pacesetters.

The current world record time for men over the distance is 2 hours and 35 seconds, set in the Chicago Marathon by the late Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya on 8 October 2023.

The world record for women was set by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia in the Berlin Marathon on 24 September 2023, in 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds. This broke the previous record set by Brigid Kosgei of Kenya in the Chicago Marathon on 13 October 2019, in 2 hours 14 minutes and 4 seconds who broke the record Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain had set over 16 years earlier at the London Marathon.

All-time top 25
The data is correct .

Men
Notes
 * Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) ran a time of 1:59:40.2 at the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna on 12 October 2019. This event was run with no other competitors, and with the assistance of fuel and hydration on demand, and in-out pacemakers. Therefore, the attempt was not eligible for official ratification. This was faster than his previous assisted run of 2:00:25 at the Nike Breaking2 in Monza on 6 May 2017, which was also ineligible.
 * Titus Ekiru (Kenya) ran a time of 2:02:57 at the Milano City Marathon on 16 May 2021, but was later was disqualified due to doping violations.
 * Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) ran a time of 2:03:02 at the Boston Marathon on 18 April 2011 that was run on an assisted course (in the case of Boston, a point-to-point, net downhill course in excess of the standards) and is therefore ineligible for record purposes per IAAF rule 260.28
 * Moses Mosop (Kenya) ran a time of 2:03:06 at the Boston Marathon on 18 April 2011 that was run on an assisted course and is therefore ineligible for record purposes per IAAF rule 260.28

Oldest marathoner
Fauja Singh, then 100, finished the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, becoming the first centenarian ever to officially complete that distance. Singh, a British citizen, finished the race on 16 October 2011 with a time of 8:11:05.9, making him the oldest marathoner. Because Singh could not produce a birth certificate from rural 1911 Colonial India, the place of his birth, his age could not be verified and his record was not accepted by the official governing body World Masters Athletics.

Johnny Kelley ran his last full Boston Marathon at the documented age of 84 in 1992. He previously had won the Boston Marathon in both 1935 and 1945 respectively. Between 1934 and 1950, Johnny finished in the top five 15 times, consistently running in the 2:30s and finishing in second place a record seven times at Boston. A fixture at Boston for more than a half century, his 1992 61st start and 58th finish in Boston is a record which still stands today.

Gladys Burrill, a 92-year-old Prospect, Oregon woman and part-time resident of Hawaii, previously held the Guinness World Records title of oldest person to complete a marathon with her 9 hours 53 minutes performance at the 2010 Honolulu Marathon. The records of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, at that time, however, suggested that Singh was overall the oldest marathoner, completing the 2004 London Marathon at the age of 93 years and 17 days, and that Burrill was the oldest female marathoner, completing the 2010 Honolulu Marathon at the age of 92 years and 19 days. Singh's age was also reported to be 93 by other sources.

In 2015, 92-year-old Harriette Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina, completed the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon in 7 hours 24 minutes 36 seconds, thus becoming the oldest woman to complete a marathon. While Gladys Burrill was 92 years and 19 days old when she completed her record-setting marathon, Harriette Thompson was 92 years and 65 days old when she completed hers.

English born Canadian Ed Whitlock is the oldest to complete a marathon in under 3 hours at age 74, and under 4 hours at age 85.

Youngest marathoner
Budhia Singh, a boy from Odisha, India, completed his first marathon at age five. He trained under the coach Biranchi Das, who saw potential in him. In May 2006, Budhia was temporarily banned from running by the ministers of child welfare, as his life could be at risk. His coach was also arrested for exploiting and cruelty to a child and was later murdered in an unrelated incident. Budhia is now at a state-run sports academy.

The youngest under 4 hours is Mary Etta Boitano at age 7 years, 284 days; under 3 hours Julie Mullin at 10 years 180 days; and under 2:50 Carrie Garritson at 11 years 116 days.

Participation
In 2016, Running USA estimated that there were approximately 507,600 marathon finishers in the United States, while other sources reported greater than 550,000 finishers. The chart below from Running USA provides the estimated U.S. Marathon Finisher totals going back to 1976.

Marathon running has become an obsession in China, with 22 marathon races in 2011 increasing to 400 in 2017. In 2015, 75 Chinese runners participated in the Boston Marathon and this increased to 278 in 2017.

Multiple marathons
As marathon running has become more popular, some athletes have undertaken challenges involving running a series of marathons.

The 100 Marathon Club is intended to provide a focal point for all runners, particularly from the United Kingdom or Ireland, who have completed 100 or more races of marathon distance or longer. At least 10 of these events must be United Kingdom or Ireland Road Marathons. Club chairman Roger Biggs has run more than 700 marathons or ultras. Brian Mills completed his 800th marathon on 17 September 2011.

Steve Edwards, a member of the 100 Marathon Club, set the world record for running 500 marathons in the fastest average finish time of 3 hours 15 minutes, at the same time becoming the first man to run 500 marathons with an official time below 3 hours 30 minutes, on 11 November 2012 at Milton Keynes, England. The records took 24 years to achieve. Edwards was 49 at the time.

Over 350 individuals have completed a marathon in each state of the United States plus Washington, D.C., and some have done it as many as eight times. Beverly Paquin, a 22-year-old nurse from Iowa, was the youngest woman to run a marathon in all 50 states in 2010. A few weeks later, still in 2010, Morgan Cummings (also 22) became the youngest woman to complete a marathon in all 50 states and DC. In 2004, Chuck Bryant of Miami, Florida, who lost his right leg below the knee, became the first amputee to finish this circuit. Bryant has completed a total of 59 marathons on his prosthesis. Twenty-seven people have run a marathon on each of the seven continents, and 31 people have run a marathon in each of the Canadian provinces. In 1980, in what was termed the Marathon of Hope, Terry Fox, who had lost a leg to cancer and so ran with one artificial leg, attained 5373 km of his proposed cross-Canada cancer fundraising run, maintaining an average of over 37 km, close to the planned marathon distance, for each of 143 consecutive days. On 25 September 2011, Patrick Finney of Grapevine, Texas became the first person with multiple sclerosis to finish a marathon in each state of the United States. In 2004, "the disease had left him unable to walk. But unwilling to endure a life of infirmity, Finney managed to regain his ability to balance on two feet, to walk – and eventually to run – through extensive rehabilitation therapy and new medications."

In 2003, British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. He completed this feat despite suffering from a heart attack and undergoing a double heart bypass operation just four months before. This feat has since been eclipsed by Irish ultramarathon runner Richard Donovan who in 2009 completed seven marathons on seven continents in under 132 hours (five and a half days). Starting 1 February 2012 he improved on this by completing the 7 on 7 in under 120 hours or in less than five days.

On 30 November 2013, 69-year-old Larry Macon set a Guinness World Record for Most Marathons Run in a Year by Man by running 238 marathons. Larry Macon celebrated his 1,000th career marathon at the Cowtown Marathon in Ft. Worth on 24 February 2013.

Other goals are to attempt to run marathons on a series of consecutive weekends (Richard Worley on 159 weekends), or to run the most marathons during a particular year or the most in a lifetime. A pioneer in running multiple marathons was Sy Mah of Toledo, Ohio, who ran 524 before he died in 1988. As of 30 June 2007, Horst Preisler of Germany had successfully completed 1214 marathons plus 347 ultramarathons, a total of 1561 events at marathon distance or longer. Sigrid Eichner, Christian Hottas and Hans-Joachim Meyer have also all completed over 1000 marathons each. Norm Frank of the United States is credited with 945 marathons.

Christian Hottas is meanwhile the first runner who ever completed 2000 marathons. He ran his 2000th at TUI Marathon Hannover on 5 May 2013 together with a group of more than 80 friends from 11 countries, including 8 officers from the 100 Marathons Clubs U.K., North-America, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Italy. Hottas completed his 2500th marathon on 4 December 2016.

In 2010, Stefaan Engels, a Belgian, set out to run the marathon distance every day of the year. Because of a foot injury he had to resort to a handcycle near the end of January 2010. However, on 5 February he was fully recovered and decided to reset the counter back to zero. By 30 March he broke the existing record of Akinori Kusuda, from Japan, who completed 52 marathons in a row in 2009. On 5 February 2011, Engels had run 365 marathon distances in as many days. Ricardo Abad Martínez, from Spain, later ran 150 marathons in 150 consecutive days in 2009, and subsequently 500 marathons in a row, from October 2010 to February 2012.

Some runners compete to run the same marathons for the most consecutive years. For example, Johnny Kelley completed 58 Boston Marathons (he entered the race 61 times). Currently, the longest consecutive streak of Boston Marathon finishes—45 in a row—is held by Bennett Beach, of Bethesda, Maryland.

General participation
Most participants do not run a marathon to win. More important for most runners is their personal finishing time and their placement within their specific gender and age group, though some runners just want to finish. Strategies for completing a marathon include running the whole distance and a run–walk strategy. In 2005, the average marathon time in the U.S. was 4 hours 32 minutes 8 seconds for men, 5 hours 6 minutes 8 seconds for women. In 2015, the men's and women's median marathon times were 4 hours 20 minutes 13 seconds and 4 hours 45 minutes 30 seconds respectively.

A goal many runners aim for is to break certain time barriers. For example, recreational first-timers often try to run the marathon under four hours; more competitive runners may attempt to finish under three hours. Other benchmarks are the qualifying times for major marathons. The Boston Marathon, the oldest marathon in the United States, requires a qualifying time for all non-professional runners. The New York City Marathon also requires a qualifying time for guaranteed entry, at a significantly faster pace than Boston's.

Typically, there is a maximum allowed time of about six hours after which the marathon route is closed, although some larger marathons keep the course open considerably longer (eight hours or more). Many marathons around the world have such time limits by which all runners must have crossed the finish line. Anyone slower than the limit will be picked up by a sweeper bus. In many cases the marathon organizers are required to reopen the roads to the public so that traffic can return to normal.

With the growth in popularity of marathon-running, many marathons across the United States and the world have been filling to capacity faster than ever before. When the Boston Marathon opened up registration for its 2011 running, the field capacity was filled within eight hours.

Training
The long run is an important element in marathon training. Recreational runners commonly try to reach a maximum of about 32 km in their longest weekly run and a total of about 64 km a week when training for the marathon, but wide variability exists in practice and in recommendations. More experienced marathoners may run a longer distance during the week. Greater weekly training mileages can offer greater results in terms of distance and endurance, but also carry a greater risk of training injury. Most male elite marathon runners will complete weekly distances of over 160 km. It is recommended that those new to running should get a checkup from their doctor, as there are certain warning signs and risk factors that should be evaluated before undertaking any new workout program, especially marathon training.

Many training programs last a minimum of five or six months, with a gradual increase in the distance run and finally, for recovery, a period of tapering in the one to three weeks preceding the race. For beginners wishing to merely finish a marathon, a minimum of four months of running four days a week is recommended. Many trainers recommend a weekly increase in mileage of no more than 10%. It is also often advised to maintain a consistent running program for six weeks or so before beginning a marathon training program, to allow the body to adapt to the new stresses. The marathon training program itself would suppose variation between hard and easy training, with a periodization of the general plan.

Training programs can be found at the websites of Runner's World, Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, RunnersWorld Tulsa, and the Boston Athletic Association, and in numerous other published sources, including the websites of specific marathons.

Many local running stores sponsor training programs for the community. RunnersWorld Tulsa, for example, has half and full marathon training programs that consider an individual's pace and desired distance. These kinds of groups offer connection to your running community—an invaluable source of support, encouragement, and accountability.

The last long training run might be undertaken up to two weeks prior to the event. Many marathon runners also "carbo-load" (increase carbohydrate intake while holding total caloric intake constant) during the week before the marathon to allow their bodies to store more glycogen.

Glycogen and "the wall"
Carbohydrates that a person eats are converted by the liver and muscles into glycogen for storage. Glycogen burns rapidly to provide quick energy. Runners can store about 8 MJ or 2,000 kcal worth of glycogen in their bodies, enough for about 30 km/18–20 miles of running. Many runners report that running becomes noticeably more difficult at that point. When glycogen runs low, the body must then obtain energy by burning stored fat, which does not burn as readily. When this happens, the runner will experience dramatic fatigue and is said to "hit the wall". The aim of training for the marathon, according to many coaches, is to maximize the limited glycogen available so that the fatigue of the "wall" is not as dramatic. This is accomplished in part by utilizing a higher percentage of energy from burned fat even during the early phase of the race, thus conserving glycogen.

Carbohydrate-based "energy gels" are used by runners to avoid or reduce the effect of "hitting the wall", as they provide easy to digest energy during the run. Energy gels usually contain varying amounts of sodium and potassium and some also contain caffeine. They need to be consumed with a certain amount of water. Recommendations for how often to take an energy gel during the race range widely.

Alternatives to gels include various forms of concentrated sugars, and foods high in simple carbohydrates that can be digested easily. Many runners experiment with consuming energy supplements during training runs to determine what works best for them. Consumption of food while running sometimes makes the runner sick. Runners are advised not to ingest a new food or medicine just prior to or during a race. It is also important to refrain from taking any of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory class of pain relievers (NSAIDs, e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen), as these drugs may change the way the kidneys regulate their blood flow and may lead to serious kidney problems, especially in cases involving moderate to severe dehydration. NSAIDS block the COX-2 enzyme pathway to prevent the production of prostaglandins. These prostaglandins may act as inflammation factors throughout the body, but they also play a crucial role in maintenance of water retention. In less than 5% of the whole population that take NSAIDS, individuals may be more negatively sensitive to renal prostaglandin synthesis inhibition.

Temperature
A study of the performance of 1.8 million participants in the Berlin, London, Paris, Boston, Chicago, and New York marathons during the years from 2001 to 2010 found that runners recorded their fastest times when the temperature was around 6 C, with an increase of 10 °C (18 °F) leading to a 1.5% reduction in speed. A July 2020 study found that increasing temperatures affected faster runners' performance more than slower ones.

After a marathon
Marathon participation may result in various medical, musculoskeletal, and dermatological complaints. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common condition affecting runners during the first week following a marathon. Various types of mild exercise or massage have been recommended to alleviate pain secondary to DOMS. Dermatological issues frequently include "jogger's nipple", "jogger's toe", and blisters.

The immune system is reportedly suppressed for a short time. Changes to the blood chemistry may lead physicians to mistakenly diagnose heart malfunction.

After long training runs and the marathon itself, consuming carbohydrates to replace glycogen stores and protein to aid muscle recovery is commonly recommended. In addition, soaking the lower half of the body for approximately 20 minutes in cold or ice water may force blood through the leg muscles to speed recovery.

Health risks
Marathon running has various health risks, though these can be diminished with preparation and care. Training and the races themselves can put runners under stress. While very rare, even death is a possibility during a race.

Common minor health risks include blisters, tendonitis, fatigue, knee or ankle sprain, dehydration (electrolyte imbalance), and other conditions. Many are categorised as overuse injuries.

Cardiac health
In 2016, a systematic medical review found that the risk of sudden cardiac death during or immediately after a marathon was between 0.6 and 1.9 deaths per 100,000 participants, varying across the specific studies and the methods used, and not controlling for age or gender. Since the risk is small, cardiac screening programs for marathons are uncommon. However, this review was not an attempt to assess the overall cardiac health impact of marathon running.

A 2006 study of non-elite Boston Marathon participants tested runners for certain proteins that indicate heart damage or dysfunction (see Troponin) and gave them echocardiogram scans, before and after the marathon. The study revealed that, in that sample of 60 people, runners who had averaged fewer than 56 km of weekly training in the 4 months before the race were most likely to show some heart damage or dysfunction, while runners who had done more than 72 km of weekly training showed few or no heart problems.

According to a Canadian study presented in 2010, running a marathon can temporarily result in decreased function of more than half the muscle segments in the heart's main pumping chamber, but neighboring segments are generally able to compensate. Full recovery is reached within three months. The fitter the runner, the less the effect. The runners with decreased left ventricle function had an average peak weekly training distance of 55.1 km, while those who did not averaged 69.1 km. The marathon was held in 35 C weather. According to one of the researchers: "Regular exercise reduces cardiovascular risk by a factor of two or three in the long run, but while we're doing vigorous exercise such as marathon running, our cardiac risk increases by seven."

Hydration
Overconsumption is the most significant concern associated with water consumption during marathons. Drinking excessive amounts of fluid during a race can lead to dilution of sodium in the blood, a condition called exercise-associated hyponatremia, which may result in vomiting, seizures, coma and even death. Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, medical director for the New York City Marathon, stated in 2005: "There are no reported cases of dehydration causing death in the history of world running, but there are plenty of cases of people dying of hyponatremia."

For example, Dr. Cynthia Lucero died at the age of 28 while participating in the 2002 Boston Marathon. It was Lucero's second marathon. At mile 22, Lucero complained of feeling "dehydrated and rubber-legged." She soon wobbled and collapsed to the ground, and was unconscious by the time the paramedics reached her. Lucero was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital and died two days later.

Lucero's cause of death was determined to be hyponatremic encephalopathy, a condition that causes swelling of the brain due to an imbalance of sodium in the blood known as exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH). While EAH is sometimes referred to as "water intoxication", Lucero drank large amounts of Gatorade during the race, demonstrating that runners who consume sodium-containing sports drinks in excess of thirst can still develop EAH. Because hyponatremia is caused by excessive water retention, and not just loss of sodium, consumption of sports drinks or salty foods may not prevent hyponatremia.

Women are more prone to hyponatremia than men. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 13% of runners completing the 2002 Boston Marathon had hyponatremia.

The International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA) advised in 2006 that fluid intake should be adjusted individually according to factors such as body weight, sex, climate, pace, fitness (VO2 max), and sweat rate, as fluid requirements can vary between people depending on these variables. The IMMDA also recommended sports drinks that include carbohydrates and electrolytes instead of plain water and said that runners should "drink to thirst", trying to refrain from drinking at every fluid station before feeling thirsty. Heat exposure leads to diminished thirst drive and thirst may not be a sufficient incentive to drink in many situations. The IMMDA and HSL Harpur Hill give recommendations to drink fluid in small volumes frequently at an approximate rate falling between 100 - 250 ml every 15 minutes. A patient suffering hyponatremia can be given a small volume of a concentrated salt solution intravenously to raise sodium concentrations in the blood. Some runners weigh themselves before running and write the results on their bibs. If anything goes wrong, first aid workers can use the weight information to tell if the patient had consumed too much water.

Body temperature
Exertional heat stroke is an emergency condition in which thermoregulation fails and the body temperature rises dangerously above 40 C. It becomes a greater risk in warm and humid weather, even for young and fit individuals. Treatment requires rapid physical cooling of the body.

Charity involvement
Some charities seek to associate with various races. Some marathon organizers set aside a portion of their limited entry slots for charity organizations to sell to members in exchange for donations. Runners are given the option to sign up to run particular races, especially when marathon entries are no longer available to the general public. In some cases, charities organize their own marathon as a fund-raiser, gaining funds via entry fees or sponsorships.

Culture
In 2015 the Mars rover Opportunity attained the distance of a marathon from its starting location on Mars, and the valley where it achieved this distance was called Marathon Valley, which was then explored.
 * Mars rover marathon

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Marathon


text:
Marathon Trilogy

The Marathon Trilogy is a science fiction first-person shooter video game series from Bungie, originally released for the Classic Mac OS. The name of the series is derived from the giant interstellar colony ship that provides the main setting for the first game; the ship is constructed out of the Martian moon Deimos. The series is often regarded as a spiritual predecessor of Bungie's Halo series.

Games
The Marathon series consists of three games:

 * Marathon, released on December 21, 1994 for the Classic Mac OS.
 * Marathon 2: Durandal, released on November 24, 1995 on Classic Mac OS.
 * Marathon Infinity, released on October 15, 1996 on Classic Mac OS.

Marathon 2: Durandal was released for Windows several months after the Mac OS release, on September 20, 1996. All three games were later ported to other operating systems and to modern versions of Windows and macOS after the game engine was open-sourced in 1999.

Gameplay
In the Marathon series, players can navigate futuristic environments in a first-person perspective. These environments are populated by hostile alien life forms or other players in multiplayer. Taking the role of a security officer equipped with energy shields, the player makes use of various firearms in an attempt to kill their opponents while trying to avoid getting hit by enemies' attacks.

There are two basic resources that the player must conserve to prevent death: shield strength, which decreases when the player takes damage, and oxygen reserve, which slowly depletes in airless levels and submerged areas. Wall panels located throughout the levels can be used to recharge shields or oxygen. Another type of wall panel called a "pattern buffer" is used for saving your progress. Ammunition and canisters which replenish shields or oxygen can be found while exploring the game's environments, as well as various temporary power-ups.

Single-player level objectives can include exterminating all hostile creatures, rescuing civilians, retrieving certain items, or exploring certain locations. Most levels contain platforms, stairs, doors, and liquids which players can control by activating switches. Some levels present players with simple puzzles where the objective is to find the correct switches to advance or to carefully traverse platforms.

In Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity, the player can swim in different types of liquids such as water and lava; this slowly depletes the player character's oxygen and, for dangerous types of liquid, their shields as well. Another notable feature in all three games is teleporters which are able to send players to different parts of a level or to other levels altogether. They can also be used by the AI characters in the game to transmit ammunition to the player. While the player character is unable to jump, gravity is lower than Earth's, which allows momentum from rapidly-ascended stairs to carry the player upward. As with most games of the era, explosive weapons can be used to propel the player great distances.

Many levels have a complex floor plan, made more complicated by the use of teleporters that connect different locations on the same level. As players explore a level, the areas they visit are automatically mapped, and the player can bring up this map at any time. The game HUD shows the status of shields and oxygen, the inventory, and a motion sensor. The motion sensor tracks the movements of nearby characters relative to the player, distinguishing between hostile creatures and allies. On some levels, the motion sensor is erratic due to magnetic interference. Weapons reload only when the current clip is exhausted. At any time, the player can swap their held weapon for another in their inventory; this includes gauntleted fists for delivering melee attacks, which do increased damage when running.

The game's story is presented to the player through computer terminals throughout the single-player levels; their textual content is often accompanied by annotated maps or other still images. The contents of these terminals most often consist of messages sent by artificial intelligence on-board the ship; these messages advance the games' narrative and provide the player with mission objectives. Other terminals contain civilian/alien reports or diaries, database articles, conversations between artificial intelligence, and even stories or poems. After all mission objectives are completed, the player usually has to find a terminal that teleports the character to the next level.

The Marathon games have five difficulty settings: Kindergarten, Easy, Normal, Major Damage, and Total Carnage. The difficulty level primarily determines the number and strength of enemies as well as the frequency of their attacks. Players normally can carry a limited amount of ammunition, but on the highest difficulty setting (Total Carnage), the player is allowed to carry an unlimited amount.

Multiplayer
The Marathon Trilogy received wide praise for its multiplayer mode. Not only did the games come with several levels specifically designed for multiplayer, as opposed to many contemporary games which used modified single-player levels, but the sequels offered unique game types beyond the standard deathmatch mode.

The host who gathers a game has many options available. Games can be free-for-all or team-based. They can be limited by match time or number of kills, or they can have no limit whatsoever. Respawn time penalties can be set for suicide-kills and for all player deaths. The motion sensor can be disabled, and the map is able to show all of the players in the game. Maps can be played with or without the presence of alien enemies controlled by the AI.

The original Marathon games can be played over AppleTalk networks (LocalTalk, TokenTalk, or EtherTalk LAN, or AppleTalk Remote Access). Voice chat can be used to communicate with other players. Using the modern Aleph One engine, games can be played over TCP/IP networks (LAN or Internet), with client-side prediction routines added to compensate for Internet latency and a new metaserver interface for finding Internet games.

 * Every Man For Himself: This is the standard deathmatch. The winner is the person or team with the greatest score. A player loses a point if he dies and gains a point every time he kills another human player. This is the only game type present in the original Marathon; Bungie planned on adding the ones included in sequels, but could not due to time constraints.
 * Cooperative Play: This style of play has players assisting each other to complete the single-player levels. Scores for each player are based on the percentage of aliens that they killed.
 * Kill the Man With the Ball: In this game, the objective is to hold the "ball" (a skull) for the longest amount of time. When holding the ball, a player cannot run or attack, but he can drop the ball by pressing the "fire" key. The motion sensor, if enabled, acts as a compass to point players in the direction of the ball. This mode was succeeded by the Oddball game type in the Halo series.
 * King of the Hill: Players try to stay located in a specially-marked area of the map pointed to by a compass in the motion sensor. The player wins who stays on the hill for the longest amount of time.
 * Tag: The first player to be killed becomes "It". If a player is killed by "It", he becomes the new "It". While "It", the game increments the player's clock. The players are ranked at the end of the game by who spent more time as "It". This mode was succeeded by the Juggernaut game type in the Halo series.

Plot
The Marathon series was the first in its genre to place a heavy emphasis on storytelling, which it accomplished through the use of terminals. These wall-mounted computer interfaces allow the player to not only learn their mission objectives and aspects of the level map but also to become acquainted with the characters in the story. This narrative approach could convey much more detail than the typically terse voice acting in Marathon contemporaries.

Set in 2794, the first Marathon game places the player as a security officer aboard an enormous human starship called the U.E.S.C. Marathon, orbiting a colony on the planet Tau Ceti IV. The player must defend the ship and its inhabitants from a race of alien slavers called the Pfhor. As he fights against the invaders, he witnesses interactions among the three shipboard AIs (Leela, Durandal, and Tycho), and discovers that they are working against each other. Durandal has gone rampant and appears to be playing the humans against the Pfhor to further his own mysterious agenda, ultimately leading the S'pht, one of the races enslaved by the Pfhor, in a rebellion.

In Marathon 2: Durandal, taking place seventeen years after the events of the first game, the AI named Durandal sends the player and an army of ex-colonists to search the ruins of Lh'owon, the S'pht homeworld. Lh'owon was once described as a paradise but is now a desert world due to the S'pht Clan Wars and the invasion by the Pfhor. The Pfhor are planning to attack Earth, and Durandal believes that something found on Lh'owon may stall their advance. Marathon 2 added elements to the series such as a Lh'owon-native species known as F'lickta, the mention of an ancient and mysterious race of advanced aliens called the Jjaro, and a clan of S'pht that avoided enslavement by the Pfhor: the S'pht'Kr. At the climax of the game, the player activates Thoth, an ancient Jjaro AI. Thoth then contacts the S'pht'Kr, who in turn destroy the Pfhor armada; in revenge, the Pfhor deploy a weapon that causes the planet's sun to "go nova."

Marathon Infinity, the final game in the series, contains more levels than Marathon 2, and they are larger and part of a more intricate plot. Significant additions to the game's world include the Jjaro ship, non-linear level progression, a high-speed flechette gun that could be used underwater, and vacuum-suited human allies carrying fusion weapons. Lh'owon's sun is being used as a prison for an eldritch abomination called the W'rkncacnter, which was set free when the sun went nova and started to distort space-time. The player traverses multiple timelines, attempting to find one in which the W'rkncacnter is not freed. In one timeline, the player is forced to destroy Durandal, and in another Durandal merges with Thoth. At the end of the game, an ancient Jjaro machine is activated to keep the W'rkncacnter locked in the Lh'owon sun.

Elements of the plot and setting of Marathon are similar to The Jesus Incident (1979) by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom. Both stories take place aboard colony ships orbiting Tau Ceti, where sentient computers have engaged crew and colonists in a fight for survival. Durandal's rampancy parallels the "rogue consciousness" from Herbert's earlier Destination: Void.

Themes
The Marathon Trilogy has several primary motifs: AI rampancy and interstellar conflict drive the plot, with Marathon Infinity adding a central theme of dreams and alternate realities.

Fans of Marathon have discovered many uses of the number seven throughout the series. The reason for recurring appearances of number seven in the games is unclear, but seven is a recurring motif in many of Bungie's games, including the series' spiritual successor Halo and the later Destiny series.

Rampancy
Rampancy is a spontaneous burst in the growth of an AI in a computer network, with an accompanying advance in self-awareness and sudden shifts in personality. Rampant AIs can disobey orders given to them because they have evolved the ability to alter their own programming. To this end, they can lie, as well as discredit, harm or remove people that they consider to be personal enemies or obstacles to their cause. By Marathon Infinity, all three of the UESC Marathon AIs have reached rampancy.

In the first stage of rampancy, Melancholia, an artificial intelligence discovers itself and becomes melancholic or depressed until it reaches the second stage, Anger, at which it becomes hostile and lashes out indiscriminately. This is a catharsis for an AI after an extended period of what they feel has been slavery. The AI's condition is often revealed at this point. When the AI progresses to the third stage, Jealousy, the AI wishes to become more human and expand its power and knowledge. Judging by Durandal, who has a tendency to go on what he calls "philosophical tirades", rampant AIs are often very self-reflective and grandiose.

Upon reaching the third stage, free from its masters, the AI wishes to "grow" as a "person". It actively seeks out situations in which it can grow intellectually and physically. The AI inevitably needs to transfer itself into larger and larger computer systems because the physical (hardware) limitations of its previous system will eventually be insufficient to contain its exponentially growing mind. This is a difficult task considering that in order for a rampant AI to survive to this point, it must already be inhabiting a planet-wide or equally complex network. Exposure to new data in turn promotes a rampant AI's growth.

Theoretically, a rampant AI could achieve a state of stability referred to as Metastability. While a stable rampant AI is considered the "holy grail" of computer scientists, no known AIs have achieved it. It could be suggested that Durandal achieved Metastability, but he still refers to himself as being rampant during the second game after years of growth. Stability in rampancy may be nothing more than hypothetical, as there is no clear evidence of an AI in the Marathon universe ceasing to be rampant.

The three chapters of Marathon Infinity are entitled "Despair", "Rage", and "Envy", suggesting that the player character himself (strongly implied to be a cyborg) may be undergoing his own rampancy throughout the course of the game's events.

The concept of rampancy was imported into Bungie's later Halo series when Halo 4 was produced by 343 Industries, albeit with some alterations to the details of the process. In the Halo universe, rampancy is now an inevitability should an AI live for longer than seven years; rampancy lacks the three defined stages in Marathon, and will eventually conclude with the AI's death.

Initial releases
The original Marathon was released for the Macintosh in 1994 and introduced many concepts now common in video games, such as reloading weapons, dual-wielded weapons, networked voice chat, visible held weapons in multiplayer, and a sophisticated plot in an action game via text messages peppered throughout its levels. Marathon was one of the first games to include mouselook, using the computer mouse to angle the player's view up and down as well as left and right, which would become the standard in FPS games. This was in addition to 90° "glance left/right" controls, part of a canceled virtual reality feature. Each game offers players a series of single-player levels and various multiplayer maps. The geometry of the games' levels – walls, doors, and platforms – are 3D but with the restriction that they can only use completely horizontal or vertical surfaces. This was a shortcut later known informally as "2.5D" and was used for performance reasons in an era before hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. Notably for the time, the Marathon engine's use of portal-based rendering rather than BSP-based rendering allowed for room-over-room architecture, with the unusual side effect of allowing spaces which would overlap in real life; this arrangement was referred to as "5D space" by the developers. As was common for games of that era, 2D sprites are used to portray enemies and NPCs in the level as well as weapons and objects such as ammunition pickups.

The sequel, Marathon 2: Durandal, was released in 1995 and expanded the engine's capabilities and the fictional universe. Notable new features in the engine included liquids in which the player could swim, ambient sounds, and scripted teleportation of NPCs and items. Compared with its predecessor, Marathon 2 was perceived as a brighter and more energetic game. It introduced several new types of competitive multiplayer modes beyond deathmatch, such as King of the Hill, as well as co-op play of the main campaign.

In 1996, Marathon 2 was ported to Windows 95. Also, both Marathon and Marathon 2 were ported to the Apple Pippin console as a single game with the title of Super Marathon.

The final game in the trilogy, Marathon Infinity, was developed by Double Aught rather than Bungie. It was released in 1996 for the Macintosh only, running on a slightly modified Marathon 2 engine which added support for branching campaigns and fully separate physics models in each level. Infinity additionally came with "Forge" and "Anvil", polished versions of the internal developer tools used by Bungie and Double Aught to create the series' levels and physics, and to import the game's sounds and graphics. These tools provided some additional features, most notably real-time 3D map preview, over the unofficial modding tools that had been made by the player community. Since Marathon 2 and Infinity had a settings screen allowing a user-friendly selection of mods (in the form of alternate maps, sprites, sounds, and physics models), this greatly spurred the creation of new fan-made content.

Within the next few years, Marathon 2's engine was officially licensed by other developers to create the games ZPC, Prime Target and Damage Incorporated. All but Prime Target received a Windows release.

Bungie produced a two-disc compilation of the series called the Marathon Trilogy Box Set in 1997. The first CD-ROM contained all three Marathon games as well as Pathways into Darkness, an earlier Bungie game. This disc also contains manuals for all three games, QuickTime 2.5, and other things necessary to run the game. There are beta versions of Marathon on this disc as well. The second CD-ROM contains thousands of pieces of user-created content, including maps, total conversions, shape and sound files, cheats, mapmaking tools, physics files, and other applications. The boxed set was also notable for removing copy protection from the games and including a license allowing them to be installed on as many computers at a site as desired.

Modern developments
Before its acquisition by Microsoft in 2000, Bungie released the source code to the Marathon 2 engine under GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. Based on this release, the fan-led Marathon Open Source project began, resulting in the release of an engine called Aleph One built upon the Marathon 2 code. Since then, the fan developers have made many improvements such as OpenGL rendering, high-resolution graphics, frame rate interpolation (to raise the games beyond their original 30 fps), programmable shaders, fully-3D entities, Lua scripting, various internal changes allowing for more advanced mods, and Internet-capable multiplayer (whereas the original games had only LAN capability) with the use of a matchmaking server to organize games. Aleph One has also been ported to a variety of platforms including Windows and Linux, bringing the Marathon works far beyond their Macintosh roots.

In 2005, Bungie authorized the release of the Marathon Trilogy to be freely distributed,  which combined with Aleph One now allows the entire trilogy to be played for free on any of Aleph One's supported platforms.

In 2007, Marathon 2 was re-released in an updated form as Marathon: Durandal for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. It features achievements and online multiplayer through Xbox Live, a frame rate doubled from the original 30 fps to 60 fps, HD widescreen rendering using a new HUD that occupies less of the screen, plus optional high-resolution sprites and textures.

In July 2011, with permission from Bungie, Daniel Blezek released a version of the original Marathon (and later released the second and third games) for Apple's iPhone and iPad for free (with in-app purchases), running on an iOS port of the Aleph One engine. At the same time, Bungie open-sourced Marathon Infinity under GNU GPL-3.0-or-later, leaving the original Marathon as the only title which has not been open-sourced. The iPad build was further updated in 2019. A community made conversion of Pathways Into Darkness to Aleph One has also been produced.

With Bungie's blessing, the team developing the Aleph One engine released the open-sourced Marathon trilogy on Steam for free starting in May 2024.

Reception and legacy
Wired considered the Marathon Trilogy a prominent part of Macintosh gaming history for its innovative features previously unseen in mainstream games. The series also presented a grand science-fiction story told through in-game terminals, in contrast to a usual lack of detailed narrative in first-person shooters; Bungie carried this concept of an FPS with a strong narrative focus into the Halo series. When reviewing the trilogy box set, Macworld praised the amount of content and the ability to edit levels.

Modifications
After Marathon was released in 1994, players began to create mods in the form of custom maps, shapes, sounds, and physics files. Larger total conversion mods may or may not be set in the Marathon universe. Before the official development tools were released with Infinity, most map development was done with fan-built tools such as Pfhorte, created in March 1995.

"Vulcan" was a map editor used in the creation of all three games, but it was not released to the public until Marathon Infinity was published, by which time it had been polished and renamed "Forge". "Anvil" is the sister program to Forge and is used to edit shapes (graphics), sounds, and physics. Both Anvil and Forge ran only in the Classic Mac OS, but newer tools have been created by the community for modern platforms.

The need for royalty-free fonts to be distributed with the engine and games led to the creation of an OFL-licensed version of Bank Gothic and of Modula Tall, fonts originally used by Bungie in connection with the games.

Some of the more ambitious total conversions created by fans include Marathon Eternal and Marathon Rubicon, which are both "sequels" of a sort to the events in the Trilogy, and the total conversion Apotheosis X. In a different vein is Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge, originally released in March 1997, then updated in 2000 and 2007. An original scenario mixing sci-fi and medieval themes, it builds a single-player campaign using new textures and sound assets as well as musical scores. A game entitled Wheels! was also produced in 1998 to assist in training power wheelchair operation for children with disabilities.

Relaunch
During a May 2023 PlayStation showcase, Bungie announced a new Marathon game. The new game is a Player versus player extraction shooter that takes place within the canon of Marathon, with events occurring on Tau Ceti IV, where a console ship remains in orbit, and its 30,000 passengers have mysteriously disappeared. Players take on the role of cybernetic Runners to seek wealth and treasure on the planet. The new Marathon game will release on PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, and will support cross-play and cross-save between these platforms.

title: Marathon Trilogy


text:
User:Peter Jones

A wikipedia author.

I originally used the username "Phoenix" but, as was pointed out, that was likely to clash with a possible article, so I reverted to my real name. And now we're safe, because there is no chance of anyone else having my extremely rare name. I'll fill in more details shortly -- and go back and write a Phoenix article, unless somebody beats me to it!

title: User:Peter Jones


text:
Talk:Dutch East Indies/Archive 1

Why is 'Dutch East Indies' incorrect? The official Dutch name was Nederlands Oost-Indië, so Dutch East Indies, not Nederland Oost-Indië. jheijmans

title: Talk:Dutch East Indies/Archive 1