Blame It On A Volcano!
As originally posted by Mike Fanelli on Facebook. Shared with Permission.
WHY IS the marathon 26.2 miles?
Blame it on Vesuvius.
That’s right, it is Mt. Vesuvius’s fault that the marathon is a mile or so longer than originally intended.
How so?
Of course, we’ve ALL heard of the legend that at the 1908 London Olympic Games, the Royal Family wanted to watch the start of the marathon race. More specifically, the Princess of Wales wanted her children to be able to see the race, and so therefore, the starting line got pushed back to Windsor Castle, just beneath the balcony of the Royal Nursery, thereby extending the distance to the now customary 26 miles, 385 yards, and 2 feet.
Alas, not so fast there Quick Draw McGraw.
You see, the 1908 Olympics had originally been awarded to Rome. Planning of the quadrennial event was well under way in the Eternal City.
The marathon distance run in the three Games that had preceeded the then scheduled Rome Olympics had been 40 kilometers (24.85 miles) in 1896, barely over 25 miles in 1900, and again 24.85 miles at St Louis in 1904. The Roman organizing committee’s intentions were to continue with said metric in their planned Games.
But on April 5, 1906, Mount Vesuvius blew her top in nearby Naples. The eruption killed more than 100 people and devastaded a large swath of Italy in its wake.
All funding that had been set aside to host the Roman Games of 1908 were redirected towards the clean up and relief efforts caused by the Vesuvius tragedy, and so therefore the Olympic Games, just two years in the offing, were no longer feasible for hosting by the Italian capital.
That’s when King Edward Vll stepped in and agreed to London’s hosting of said event
“And now,” in the words of acclaimed radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, “you know the rest of the story.”
