I want to tell you a story about a runner.

Now you may have heard this one before because this is perhaps the most famous story about a runner that has ever been told.

This is the tale of the first ever marathon.

The story goes that in the year 490 BC, an army of Greeks led by the city of Athens

made a stand against a massive Persian invasion force at the Plains of Marathon,

some 40 kilometers northeast of Athens. The Athenians and their allies were hugely outnumbered by the Persians, perhaps 3 to 1.

Some less reliable sources even claim that the Persian army numbered 100,000 men compared to the 10,000 fielded by the Greeks.

While that's unlikely, all the sources agree that the Greeks were at a disadvantage.

And yet, despite the long odds, the Athenians won the day.

The Persians were pushed back and the first attempted Persian invasion of Greece was blunted.

Legend has it that as it became clear that the Greeks were going to win,

a runner was sent from Marathon back to Athens to deliver the happy news.

This runner covered that 40 kilometer distance at an impressive speed. But the exertion proved to be more than any mortal could handle.

When he finally arrived in Athens, he collapsed in front of the city leaders and with his last breath he breathed the word

Nikomen we have won and then the valiant Messenger promptly died from exhaustion.

The marathon had claimed its first happy victim.

Now that last word is somewhat contested. Others have translated it as, quote,

Joy to you, we have won, end quote, with the runner repeating the last word, joy as he finally expired.

But as it turns out, it's not just the last words that are a little inconsistent between the sources.

There's actually some disagreement over the name of this famous first marathoner.

The best known tradition has it that the runner was named

Phi dippities, but another source calls him Philipides. And then a third source offers us two different names for the runner, calling him both

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