Marathon: The 2500th Anniversary Quiz

Answer: He died

For those of you that are considering taking on a 26 mile 385 yard challenge, do not fear. Pheidippides had also ran around 150 miles in two days just prior to his more famous run from Marathon to Athens. As I doubt that there were water stations, showers, or sponges on the route, it's maybe not that surprising that he collapsed of exhaustion.

Answer: Catching a ride

Apparently, Belokas covered part of the course in a carriage. There was a complaint made by the Hungarian fourth place finisher, and to his credit, Belokas admitted his guilt.

Cheating seems to have been rampant in the early days of the Olympic marathon. There is doubt over whether Michel Theato took a short-cut in 1900, and in 1904 Fred Lorz got a lift in his manager's car.

Nowadays, organisers try and prevent cheating by using timing chips to register whether a runner has crossed certain checkpoints on the course. Unfortunately, there will always be people who try and get around this. In the 2010 Xiamen International Marathon in China, over 30 competitors were disqualified following the discovery of irregularities. Some of the first 100 finishers were caught catching public transport. Some runners carried more than one chip so that their times would register for two people. Some people hired impostors. For runners, a time under 2 hours 34 minutes would give them extra credits for college entrance exams.

Answer: Dorando Pietri

A testimony to the true difficulty of this event is how a runner can seemingly be immortal for 95% of the race, and then just fall to pieces. In perhaps the most controversial marathon result of all-time, officials continually helped the poor Italian back to his feet after he first collapsed following the taking of a wrong turn.

Although the marathon distance was not agreed upon until 1921, this was the first race under current conditions. The run started at Windsor Castle and finished in the Olympic stadium in White City. The course was originally supposed to be longer, but had to be shortened because of complications with the royal box.

History has a way of repeating itself, and in 1948 Etienne Gailly came staggering into the stadium in a pretty bad way. He also collapsed in the stadium, but fortunately just after the finish. He was taken away on a stretcher and missed the medal ceremony.

Answer: Emil Zatopek

Zatopek was a true monster of the distance running world. He used to follow an excessively tough training regime, and was one of the pioneers for the intense interval sessions that most distance runners use in their training today. He is extremely quotable, with his most famous quip perhaps being, "Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast."

His wife Dana, also won a gold medal at the same Olympics by throwing the javelin. Unlike Emil, she went on to win a further medal at the 1960 Olympics, though this time it was only a silver.

Answer: He ran barefoot

It's not that Bikila didn't want to wear shoes, it's that when he tried them on he didn't like them. Fortunately, he'd been doing all his training barefoot so it didn't really bother him. His coach told him to look out for the the number 26, Rhadi Ben Abdesselam. So, Bikila worked his way through the field trying to find the number 26, but never found him.

He was running alongside number 185 as he came to the finish, and moved away from him to win the gold medal. Turns out that number 185 was in fact Abdesselam, who had not managed to acquire the correct bib number before the race, so ran using another number. Bikila also won the marathon in 1964, but on that occasion wore Puma shoes.

Answer: There were joint winners

In 1981, American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen crossed the line hand in hand in one of the most sporting gestures of all-time. The time of 2:11:48 is very slow compared to recent efforts, with a time of around 2:06 almost routine for the winner in the late noughties.

British success was high in the first few years, but since Eamonn Martin's relatively slow victory in 1993, there have been very few contenders. The times that British athletes have been posting in the early part of the 21st century have not been competitive, although John Brown did finish fourth in the Olympic marathon on two occasions.

Answer: Paula Radcliffe

It is frightening how good Paula Radcliffe was during this period. She was so much faster than everyone else, that it seemed she just had to turn up to the 2004 Athens Marathon in order to pick up the gold medal. Alas, the marathon is a nasty piece of work that has a habit of breaking even the greatest of athletes. It may be an injury, or you may just feel rotten on the day, no matter how good your preparation is. Cue, Paula sitting by the side of the road in tears after dropping out in the closing stages as she was struggling in fourth place.

Still, Paula deserves to be lauded as the national hero that she undoubtedly is. When she ran that spectacular time in 2003, the time was actually faster than any British male athlete in that year, possibly a unique achievement, but things don't work out that way. Ask the British public what they think of Paula and they will mention her as a drop out who was quite happy to crouch for a toilet stop during the race. The superhuman achievements have seemingly been forgotten.

Answer: He was attacked by an Irish priest

Amazingly, de Lima held on to take the bronze medal. We'll never know if he could have held on to the gold, as Stefano Baldini the eventual winner, was steaming toward the finish and may well have caught him.

Cornelius Horan was the name of the disgraceful character that spoiled this great race. He has popped up at the British Grand Prix and had an appearance on "Britain's Got Talent". On the latter, he was even put through to the next round. Horan apologised for his attack on de Lima, so that makes everything OK, doesn't it?

Answer: Sammy Wanjiru

This was a fascinating race to watch, as you just saw great athletes streaming off the back of the main pack really early in proceedings. With quite a long way to go, there were only a handful athletes still in contention, and you wondered whether they would be able to hold on, or somebody would come from behind to take the crown. Amazingly, Wanjiru smashed the Olympic record, while pre-race favourite Martin Lel dropped back out of the medals. Jaouad Gharib held on for a great second, whilst the rest of the pack faded, which allowed Tsegay Kebede to catch up and take the bronze. Marathon running is normally taken up by leading athletes in the twilight of their career, but Wanjiru was only 21 when he won the gold.

The women's event in 2008 was entertaining for different reasons. Constantina Dita-Tomescu ran away from the pack and managed to hold on. The opposition could probably have caught her, but they were so busy watching each other that they left it far too late to chase her down. This is a great example of what you can achieve if you believe in yourself enough to continue trying again and again, and never let the setbacks get you down.

Answer: Panathinaiko Stadium

The marathon finishes in the stadium that was used for the resurrected Olympic Games in 1896. With 2010 marking the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon, the Athens Marathon officials have used that information as a free piece of advertising for their event. After all, it's not every year you get a 2500th anniversary of something.