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A real Marathon man (lemmy.world)

submitted 20 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 18 hours ago (16 children)

He ran a marathon and died.
Today, millions run marathons and are fine.
Some do it while wearing T-Rex costumes.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 17 hours ago (12 children)

Pheidippides didn't run a marathon. He ran 260 km over two days and died. A modern marathon is "only" 42.195 km.

You'd probably die as well without training for said marathon, which that poor man didn't have the luxury of doing.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (11 children)

Pheidippides

Oh man, are you selling it short. He was a professional running-courier, so we can assume he was well-seasoned for the activity, BUT

The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530–490 BC), an Athenian herald, or hemerodrome[3] (translated as 'day-runner',[4] 'courier',[5][6] 'professional-running courier'[3] or 'day-long runner'[7]), was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days, and then ran back. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) to the battlefield near Marathon and back to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] 'We win!'), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen ('hail, we are the winners')[9] and then collapsed and died.

If I'm reading this correctly, he ran 350 miles in around a week or less? That's insane.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Ok, yeah that's insane. No wonder the poor guy dropped from exhaustion

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Probably kidney failure

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Happy Cakeday! 🍰🎂

Kidney failure? Was he chugging wine and mead the whole way, or is that just a result of extreme dehydration?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Muscles break down kidneys get overwhelmed and go into failure. Sometimes (rarely) ultra marathoners will need dialysis and they are running a much shorter distance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Ahh! Gotcha. Fair enough. I suppose that's actually useful for me to know, thanks!

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