Essay --

Long Distance Running You are standing at the starting lining, your hearts pounding. Your palms begin to get sweaty and butterflies start to take flight in your stomach. You can hear people cheering in the background. You look right, and then you look left and see runners who have dedicated the same amount of time and energy as you or more. Suddenly everything goes quite. POW, the gun fires and everyone takes off like a bunch of wild horses. Your race has begun and you are now running to achieve your goal. Long-distance running is a challenging sport that goes beyond exercise and pushes the individual past what most runners’ experience. The very first ever marathon took place 490 B.C., when a Greek soldier known as Pheidippide ran from the battlefield in the town of marathon, Greece to Athens. When Pheidippide arrive to Athens, he shouted â€Å"Nikki!† (Victory) then collapsed and died. Later on when the modern Olympic games were founded in 1896, the legend of the first marathon ran by Pheidippide was brought back to life by a 24.8 run from marathon bridge to the Olympic stadium in Athens. Twenty-five runners gather at the bridge and were ready to run the first modern marathon, out of these twenty-five runners there was only one American runner (Arthur Blake). Arthur was a middle distance runner. Three days before the marathon Arthur ran the 1500-meter race, and took second place. Due to this, Arthur was very exhausted but still decided to run, due to his decision Arthur could not finish the marathon and dropped out 14.5 miles into the race. On the boat ride back to the United States, planning for the first A merican marathon took place. The first annual Boston Athletic association marathon was organized on April 18, 1897. This date was... ...low. Someone who had seen the accident ran to help and saw Prefontain lying face up, at that point he was still alove but was unable to get out from under the car. The witness ran for help but by the time they had rounded up more people to help, Prefontain was dead after the car had crushed him to death. the story of Prefontaine’s life and death is a sad one, as his life was claimed at the age of just 24 young years, and he never he the opportunity to reattempt the Olympics. (6) Long-distance running is a challenging sport that goes beyond exercise and pushes the individual past what most runners’ experience. Many people dislike running but the few that are interested in it just don’t like they love it. "As every runner knows, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are." (- Joan Benoit Samuelson)