Q 01/05

The official marathon distance is 42.195 kilometres. In miles, that is roughly what?

A) 26.2

B) 24.8

C) 25.0

D) 27.5

Answer · why

A) 26.2

More than 800 marathons are held worldwide each year, most of them fields of recreational runners.

Q 02/05

The 42.195 km distance was standardised by the IAAF in 1921 based on the course of which Olympic Games?

A) Athens 1896

B) London 1908

C) Stockholm 1912

D) Paris 1900

Answer · why

B) London 1908

That course ran from Windsor Castle to the White City Stadium and finished in front of the Royal Box.

Q 03/05

The 1908 Olympic marathon started at which royal residence?

A) Buckingham Palace

B) Hampton Court

C) Windsor Castle

D) Kensington Palace

Answer · why

C) Windsor Castle

Organisers chose a 26-mile route to the stadium plus a lap of the track, which is where the extra 385 yards come from.

Q 04/05

Which French philologist proposed an Olympic marathon for 1896, inspired by an ancient Greek story?

A) Pierre de Coubertin

B) Ernest Renan

C) Émile Littré

D) Michel Bréal

Answer · why

D) Michel Bréal

The marathon is the only running road race contested at both the Olympics and the World Championships.

Q 05/05

Per Herodotus, Pheidippides ran from Athens to which city before the Battle of Marathon?

A) Corinth

B) Thebes

C) Delphi

D) Sparta

Answer · why

D) Sparta

That is about 240 km each way; the famous Marathon-to-Athens death run only appears in much later versions such as Lucian's and Robert Browning's poem...