Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Running Question Challenge - If you could ask Pheidippides a question, what would you ask him?



If you could ask Pheidippides a question, what would you ask him?

Runners attribute the marathon to Pheidippides, the Greek Athenian hero who ran from Marathon to Sparta to request help when the Persians invaded. Not having enough running yet, he ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. He then collapsed and died from exhaustion after running 150 miles in 2 days.

Even though I come up with these questions, I'm not sure how to answer it until I sit here trying to compose my answer. My question would be did he stop along the way? I picture a guy running sprinting till he got tired and then walking and sprinting again. I only read up on Pheidippides in Wikipedia and it indicates the story is improbable that a runner would make the trip when they would usually send messages over horseback but there was a mountainous pass that would have made travel by horse difficult. But let's say he did make the trip.  Did he have food along the way? Did he hydrate?  My guess is no because the poor guy died when he finished. Can you imagine running 150 miles, being near to death and still running to save your city? Now that is a dedicated, stubborn runner.
Statue of Pheidippides alongside the Marathon Road


10 comments:

Pining for Pinterest said...

That is a great question! I have no idea! I hope you are having a great week!

Julie said...

Hi Christina,
I am with Staci...I am not sure what to tell you:) I am stubborn sometimes when I run:) Happy Tuesday Christina!!

Julia said...

hmmm that is really a great question. I wish I could come up with a cool, philosophical question to ask him, but most likely if I saw him running like that, I would just ask him if he needed anything (water, food, a massage, etc). Boring I know... I would like to know what was going through his mind too!

Anonymous said...

I would ask him why he didn't take a walk break.

Johann said...

Good question, I'll have to think about this.

Tara said...

He probably died because they had no post race beer.

April said...

That is a really good question. My brother and I just read up on Pheidippides before we ran the AZ half.
We also read that the last word that he spoke before he died was "Nike" which means Victory.

I'm not sure what I would ask him, I'll have to think about it some more...

Anonymous said...

I would have to ask who told him that he couldn't do it?

That has been the first step in me taking on every "crazy" challenge over the past 5 years. (Marathon, Qualifying for Boston etc.)

Ashland Dave said...

I'd ask him if he had wished the distance was shorter.

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