This point is brought home to me by a couple of young athletes who live in the neighborhood. I'm old enough to remember things like Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, and Jim Ryan running the mile in under 4 minutes. The fleet profile of the FTD man flying through air has been embedded in my mind as the ideal running form since I was a child. These couple of college kids rather resemble the FTD man, which should serve as an inspiration, except they tend to not only run up behind me, but pass me leaving not much but dust in their wake. I remember when these kids were tiny wisps, now full grown, and very fast. My daughter and I have dubbed them Apollo and Pheidippides, after the Greek sun god, and the Athenian hero who ran 175 miles in 2 days to request Spartan help against the Persians, whereupon he collapsed and died.
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| Pheidippides |
#1 *Never* run 175 miles in two days.
#2 As a true blue wolverine, *never* request help from a Spartan.
On that note, I take rest até amanhã...
7/5/11 - 1.9 miles | 22 mins | 5.1 mph | 215 kcal
Dear Fans, I would like to post the wikipedia explanation of Pheidippides' run so you can most accurately deride the Spartans: "The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC), an Athenian herald, was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran 240 km (150 miles) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 miles) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, "We have won") and collapsed and died on the spot from exhaustion."
ReplyDeleteSo Pheidippides did run to ask the Spartans for help (who refused to help him because they would not fight until a full moon--weird AND useless), but the run that actually killed him was the 26 mile run back to Athens.