Generally speaking, we're pretty happy with ourselves if we hammer out a 3-5 mile run on any given day.
That is, until we heard that Greek distance runners Maria Polyzou (the Greek women's marathon record-holder) and Panayiotis Skoulis intend to run 520 km (325 miles) from Athens to Sparta and then back to Marathon as a tribute to the soldier/messenger Pheidippides, according to Reuters.
Did we mention that they plan to complete that obscenely unpleasant endeavor in just seven days? As Reuters reports, "This will entail running a double marathon every day for a week, with minimal rest in between."
Explains the 42-year-old Polyzou, "You can't undertake something like this if you do not believe in the whole idea of the marathon."
You also can't undertake something like this unless you're quite possibly out of your mind. Assuming that we're reading this textbook correctly (and there's a lot of doodling in the margins so it's hard to be certain), the soldier Pheidippides (not pictured above) completed his epic run in 490 B.C. and then promptly died.
To be clear, we're all for a tribute, but this just seems excessively unpleasant at best, and at worst, wildly unsafe. If they truly feel obligated to complete this task, does it really need to be done in a week? We're pretty sure that no one is going to accuse Polyzou and Skoulis of being half-hearted if they spread out their trip over the course of two weeks instead of one.
That would make it more like one marathon per day as opposed to two. Isn't that enough? (Or too much, as the case may be?)
Who are we to judge, you ask? Fair point. If we were asked to put together a tribute to Pheidippides, it would probably be a closer to a 3.25-minute PowerPoint presentation than a 325-mile run. Nevertheless, with no disrespect intended - and with pun fully intended - it is our strong opinion that Polyzou and Skoulis are taking this particular homage way too far.
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