Isn't it 26 miles 385yds?

[V8Wagon]

Dunno why but seeing this, this morning really irritated me. I guess I'm getting old and don't like change!!

The last time I checked, a marathon was 26 miles wasn't it? The local marathon down here now has the distance measured out in kilometres rather than miles.

[Cock Womble 7]

V8Wagon said:

Dunno why but seeing this, this morning really irritated me. I guess I'm getting old and don't like change!!

The last time I checked, a marathon was 26 miles wasn't it? The local marathon down here now has the distance measured out in kilometres rather than miles.

Wasn't that just a "this is how far you've got to go" marker?

[madbadger]

The Horrrorrrrr.

Kms are good for running as it is easier pacing yourself.

[V8Wagon]

madbadger said:

The Horrrorrrrr.

Kms are good for running as it is easier pacing yourself.

That makes sense.

Cock Womble 7 said:

Wasn't that just a "this is how far you've got to go" marker?

Yeh, last year the sign in the same area said 17 miles, and it's distance ran rather than to go.

[hyperblue]

Races are often marked out in KM's for pacing.

The official Marathon distance is 42.195 km.

Edited by hyperblue on Friday 13th April 18:36

[EDLT]

Or it was a 25km race?

[V8Wagon]

hyperblue said:

Races are often marked out in KM's for pacing.

Yep, I get it now.

It's always been marked out in miles in previous years and I couldn't understand why we'd gone all European.

[Willy Nilly]

V8Wagon said:

hyperblue said:

Races are often marked out in KM's for pacing.

Yep, I get it now.

It's always been marked out in miles in previous years and I couldn't understand why we'd gone all European.

I like it when they are marked in KM's, my Garmin is in metric and it's very hard to do maths and run at the same time.

[alfa pint]

The distance itself is somewhat mythical. It was set in stone at its current distance in the 1948 London Olympics as that was the route they chose.

[Gokartmozart]

alfa pint said:

The distance itself is somewhat mythical. It was set in stone at its current distance in the 1948 London Olympics as that was the route they chose.

I thought it was the 1908 Olympics so the race would start in front of the royal box.

[alfa pint]

I wouldn't argue with that in my beer addled state. Knew it was the London games, just thought it was the 1948 ones.

[chrisxr2]

Thought it was because the king was at the finish line and when the sun was in his eyes he moved and the finish line went with him.

[fadeaway]

Gokartmozart said:

I thought it was the 1908 Olympics so the race would start in front of the royal box.

Distance was so it would start under window at Windsor castle and finish in the stadium.

[nick s]

fadeaway said:

Distance was so it would start under window at Windsor castle and finish in the stadium.

^This!

[g7jhp]

The London Marathon shows both miles and the bigger km marks!

[Eric Mc]

Gokartmozart said:

alfa pint said:

The distance itself is somewhat mythical. It was set in stone at its current distance in the 1948 London Olympics as that was the route they chose.

I thought it was the 1908 Olympics so the race would start in front of the royal box.

Correct.

Before WW1 the Olympuics was a far more loose and unregulated event.

[john2443]

I guess that photo is from Brighton. Both miles and Ks were signed, imagine if you turn up from <insert name of suitable country, anywhere in the world apart from UK and US) yopu would have no idea how big a mile was and even if you do, trying to do mental arithmatic to convert your expecte 3.30 per K into per mile is a bit tricky!

Equally some UK runners may work in K for when they run abroad, I now do because 5k is my normal distance and it's no good working in miles.

HTH

[john2443]

PS In race control, everything was described by miles - the water staion at mile 5, the leaders are at mile 18 etc, so the organisation thinks in miles.