A baker’s dozen showed up at WDog to honor Philippides, whose run on this day in 490 BC inspired the modern marathon. Philippides, of course, had just fought with Athens to defeat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, and well, somebody had to go tell ’em…
What happened next (Philippides announcing the victory, then falling down dead) was the source of both disagreement and mild disdain among the PAX. Was it 26 miles, or merely 22? Why couldn’t they just send TYA instead? 22-26 miles is like a warmup. YHC has more unanswered questions, but here’s what went down this morning:
PAX ran the mile loop straight out of the gate, then gathered for a brief history lesson and COP (helicopters, cotton pickers, Russian soldiers, flutter kicks, American Hammers, merkins).
Mosey to the amphitheater for a triple check: LBCs, side-straddle hops, while the 3rd runs up the amphitheater then bear crawls back down. After some creative planking at the bottom, PAX escaped and moseyed over towards the ha’penny stage.
Partner Touch-a-Tree: each round increases the number of trees to touch, while partner works on completing 100 (insert name of that thing where you go from plank down to elbows and back up – comment if you have it!) and 100 WWIIs. After a final lap around the Carillon and fencing (“marathon” as a theme turns out to be somewhat limited without a stronger background in Classical military history), it was back to the flag for numbers, names, ‘nouncements.
A pleasure, as always!
YNWA
4 Comments
Well done Mr. Holland . Bear crawls down the amp theatre were tough..
Way to work guys. Great partnering with Bleeder – Handshake and Flange today!
See y’all in the gloom..
Abu Dabi’s or something like that. I vote “The Sphynx” cause it’s easier to remember. Just googled “sphynx” and got a bunch of really weird looking cats that apparently some people have started tattooing. This world is a really weird place.
Also, from Wiki: “This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) long, and this 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 considerably shorter, some 35 kilometres (22 mi), but includes a very steep initial climb of more than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi).”
Oh yeah, really nice job this morning, Holland.
Solid beatdown this a.m. Bleeder and I were convinced a Murph was coming. Looking forward to the History Channel Murph narrarated by Mr. Holland at some point.
Nice job, Mr. Holland! Enjoyed the short history lesson (you too Lab Rat) and the smoker that followed. I remember the days of being able to jump out of the car and hit the bricks right away, but it’s a faint memory!