Origin of "Marathon"

Cool little lesson of the day - the 26-mile "marathon" was named after a famous greek battle during which a famous greek runner Pheidippides supposidely ran 26 miles from the battle to Athens to declare victory and then collapsed dead. Probably had something to with the 2 140-mile ultra marathons he ran in 2 days before! This website has an excellent exploration of the truth and fiction of the myth.