Recently I have noticed lots of students using the term 'MARATHON' to mean any sort of mass run.

'I did a 1km marathon' yesterday' for example.

But this is in fact incorrect.

I thought I should explain this to avoid further confusion, as I have heard this from many students in Asian countries lately.

Wikipedia defines a marathon as the following :

'The marathon is a long-distance race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres[1] (approximately 26 miles 385 yards), usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory.'

So there is technically no such thing as a 1km, 10km or even 30km marathon.

I will outline the correct technical terms below :

1 kilometre = 1K (Casual English)
5 kilometres = 5K (Casual English)
10 kilometres = 10K (Casual English)
21.09 kilometres = Half Marathon
42.19 kilometres / 26.2 miles = Marathon
42.19+ kilometres = Ultramarathon
50 kilometres = 50K (Casual English) Ultramarathon
100 kilometres = 100K (Casual English) Ultramarathon 
160.93 kilometres = 100 mile Ultramarathon OR 100 Miler (Casual English)

I have listed casual English to refer to how we would normally say it is spoken language.

For example -

"I have a 5K this weekend" - would be a commonly said phrase.

So there you go!

A marathon is technically ONLY 42.19km, and anything more or less should be called something else. 

There is some very interesting history about the reasoning behind this distance (it is in fact NOT the distance that Pheidippides ran back in ancient Greece, despite many people beleiving it was!
He actually ran FAR further, and in fact dropped dead upon breaking some important news to his people. 

One reason for the distance is that Marathon to Athens was approximately 25 miles, and was the FINAL leg of the journey that the Greek foot messenger ran during the time of war. 

So why the precise 26.2 miles / 42.19km?!

This is where it gets amusing! ;-)

So they originally intended it to be around 25 miles, as per historical event (well, the FINAL part of the historical event anyway!) - BUT - in typical British fashion, when the Olympics came to the UK they wanted to start the race at Windsor Castle, and end with a lap around White City Stadium track to finish in front of the Royal viewing Box! Haha.

It was decided that from this day onwards, the official distance would stay as 26.2miles, and has never been changed since.

So there you go!

If you are ever running a marathon (an ACTUAL marathon, not a local 5km race) and feeling that the final mile is killing you - you can thank the British royal family for extending the race distance! :-)

Have a HAPPY and HEALTHY day everyone.

David