Astronomers Pinpoint Date Of First Marathon

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Astronomers Pinpoint Date

Of First Marathon

By Maggie McKee

NewScientist.com

7-21-4

 

The date of the first ever marathon - thought to have been run 2500

years ago by a single sprinter who died after reaching the finish

line - has been identified by a team of astronomical sleuths.

 

Historians originally misinterpreted the date of the run, says a

team from Texas State University in San Marcos. The researchers

believe their new analysis may explain the runner's untimely death.

 

The discovery also comes a month before modern athletes retrace the

celebrated run from the city of Marathon to Athens during 2004

Olympic games in Greece.

 

According to Greek legend, the first run saw a lone Athenian race to

Athens, 42 kilometres away, to warn of an imminent attack by Persian

soldiers.

 

Previously, historians thought the run took place on 12 September,

based references to the Moon in ancient texts. They determined the

date using the Athenian calendar, which begins on the first New Moon

after the summer solstice.

 

But Donald Olson and Russell Doescher of the physics department and

Marilynn Olson of the English department recomputed the date using

the Spartans' own calendar, which starts on the first New Moon after

the autumn equinox, they arrived at a date of 12 August.

 

Heat stroke

 

If that is so, the runner was subjected to temperatures as high as

39 degrees Celsius - not the 28 degrees C common in September. Heat

stroke is likely to have killed him, the team concludes.

 

"It seems plausible that someone running for all he's got, trying to

save his fellow citizens, could keel over and die," Doescher told

New Scientist. The team describe their investigation in the

September 2004 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine.

 

The story of the celebrated run begins in 490 BC, when the king of

Persia sent a fleet of 25,000 soldiers to punish the Athenians for

revolting. The troops landed in the coastal town of Marathon, 42

kilometres from Athens, where they were met by 10,000 armed

Athenians.

 

The outnumbered Athenians dispatched a professional runner named

Pheidippides to Sparta to ask for help in the coming battle. He made

the 240-km trip in one day but arrived only to discover that a

religious festival prevented the Spartans from fighting until the

Full Moon six days later.

 

'Patently improbably'

 

The Athenians battled the Persians in Marathon alone - and won. But

some of Persian soldiers set sail for Athens, so the Athenians

hurriedly sent a runner - by some accounts Pheidippides again - back

to Athens to warn of the attack. The messenger ran the 42 kilometres

without stopping. But just after he arrived with the news, he died.

 

That has previously made some professional runners suspicious.

The "story is so patently improbable," writes Jim Fixx in a 1978

book on running. "Ask yourself: How likely is it, given the fact

that thousands of modern marathon runners compete every weekend

without mishap, that a trained runner would not have just collapsed

but died."

 

But the new date, provided by the Texas team, may provide a

plausible explanation.

 

Modern athletes will retrace the famous event from Marathon at the

end of summer 2004's Olympic games in Greece. To avoid the same fate

as the original marathoner, the participants will set out at 6 pm

and run under the cool light of a Full Moon.

 

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