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• 
  

• 
  1908 Summer Olympics
  The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic Games. However, the Athens Games of 1906 have since been downgraded by the International Olympic Committee and the 1908 Games are seen as the start of the Fourth Olympiad, in keeping with the now-accepted four-year cycle. The IOC president for these Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
  Italian authorities were preparing to hold the games when Mount Vesuvius erupted on April 7, 1906, devastating the city of Naples. Funds were diverted to the reconstruction of Naples, so a new venue was required. London was selected, and the games were held in White City alongside the Franco-British Exhibition, at the time the more noteworthy event. Berlin and Milan were other candidates.
  The White City Stadium, built in short time for the games, held 68,000 and was considered by some^[who?] a technological marvel. The stadium track was three laps to the mile, not the current standard of 400 metres, with a pool for swimming and diving and platforms for wrestling and gymnastics in the middle.
  
  wn.com/1908_Summer_Olympics
• 
  Antarctica
  Antarctica
  
  This map uses an orthographic projection, near-polar aspect. The South Pole is near the center, where longitudinal lines converge.
  Antarctica (ⁱ/æntˈɑrtɨkə/ or /ænˈtɑːktɨkə/) is Earth's southernmost continent, containing the geographic South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages at least 1 mile (1.6 km) in thickness.
  Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) along the coast and far less inland. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89 °C (−129 °F). There are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted organisms survive there, including many types of algae, animals (for example mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades), bacteria, fungi, plants, and protista. Vegetation where it occurs is tundra.
  
  wn.com/Antarctica
• 
  Battle of Marathon
  The Battle of Marathon (Greek: Μάχη τοῦ Μαραθῶνος, Machē tu Marathōnos) took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. It was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The first Persian invasion was a response to Greek involvement in the Ionian Revolt, when Athens and Eretria had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule. The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis, but were then forced to retreat with heavy losses. In response to this raid, Darius swore to burn down Athens and Eretria. At the time of the battle, Sparta and Athens were the two largest city states.
  Once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade, Darius began plans to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean, to subjugate the Cyclades, and then to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean, the Persians proceeded to besiege and capture Eretria. The Persian force then sailed for Attica, landing in the bay near the town of Marathon. The Athenians, joined by a small force from Plataea, marched to Marathon, and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon. A stalemate ensued for five days, before the Athenians decided to attack the Persians because, under the cover of night, some of the Persian fleet had set sail for Athens. Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective against the more lightly armed Persian infantry, routing the wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line.
  
  wn.com/Battle_of_Marathon
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  Ethiopia
  Ethiopia ( /ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/) (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km². Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With its capital at Addis Ababa, it is also the most populous landlocked nation in the world.
  Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history, and the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 2nd century BC. Ethiopia is also one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity's oldest traces. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. Alongside Rome, Persia, China and India, the Ethiopian Aksum Empire was considered one of the great world powers of the 3rd century. During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the only African country beside Liberia that retained its sovereignty as a recognized independent country, and was one of only four African members of the League of Nations. After a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. When other African nations received their independence following World War II, many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag, and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa.
  
  wn.com/Ethiopia
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  Frogmore
  Coordinates: 51°28′26.5″N 0°35′47.2″W / 51.474028°N 0.596444°W / 51.474028; -0.596444 The Frogmore Estate or Gardens comprise 33 acres (130,000 m²) of private gardens within the grounds of the Home Park, adjoining Windsor Castle, in the English county of Berkshire. The name derives from the preponderance of frogs which have always lived in this low-lying and marshy area.
  It is the location of Frogmore House, a Royal retreat. It is also the site of three burial places of the British Royal Family: the Royal Mausoleum containing the tombs of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum, burial place of the Queen Victoria's mother; and the Royal Burial Ground.
  Frogmore House was built in the 1680s and purchased by King George III as a country retreat for Queen Charlotte in 1792. In 1900 Earl Mountbatten of Burma was born there.
  This mausoleum within the Frogmore Gardens is the burial place of Queen Victoria's mother, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the Duchess of Kent. The Mausoleum was designed by the architect A J Humbert, to a concept design by Prince Albert's favourite artist, Professor Ludwig Gruner.
  
  wn.com/Frogmore
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  Germany
  Germany (ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km² and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
  A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
  
  wn.com/Germany
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  Great Wall of China
  The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger, stronger, and unified are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, enhanced; the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty.
  Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
  
  wn.com/Great_Wall_of_China
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  Greenland
  Greenland (Kalaallisut: Kalaallit Nunaat, "Land of the Kalaallit";Danish: Grønland) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and later Denmark) for more than a millennium. Greenland is, by area, the world's largest island. With a population of 56,615 (January 2011 estimate) it is the least densely populated dependency or country in the world.
  Greenland has been inhabited, though not continuously, by Arctic peoples via Canada for 4500–5000 years. In the 10th century, Norsemen settled on the uninhabited southern part of Greenland. In the 13th century, the Inuit arrived, and in the late 15th century the Norse colonies were abandoned. In the early 18th century, contact between Scandinavia and Greenland was re-established and Denmark established rule over Greenland.
  
  wn.com/Greenland
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  Japan
  Japan ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
  Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
  Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
  
  wn.com/Japan
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  Kenya
  Kenya ( /ˈkɛnjə/ or /ˈkiːnjə/), officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. With the Indian Ocean to its south-east, it is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km² and a population of nearly 41 million, representing 42 different peoples and cultures. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi.
  Kenya has a warm and humid climate along its coastline on the Indian Ocean which changes to wildlife-rich savannah grasslands moving inland towards the capital Nairobi. Nairobi has a cool climate that gets colder approaching Mount Kenya, which has three permanently snow-capped peaks. The warm and humid tropical climate reappears further inland towards lake Victoria, before giving way to temperate forested and hilly areas in the western region. The North Eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh-water lake (after Lake Superior in the US and Canada) and the world's largest tropical lake, is situated to the southwest and is shared with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse world-famous wildlife reserves such as Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park.
  
  wn.com/Kenya
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  North Pole
  Coordinates: 90°N 0°W / 90°N 0°W / 90; -0
  The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It should not be confused with the North Magnetic Pole.
  The North Pole is the northernmost point on Earth, lying diametrically opposite the South Pole. It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north. At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value.
  While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole (unlike the South Pole). However, the Soviet Union, and later Russia, have constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. In recent years, a number of studies have predicted that the North Pole may become seasonally ice-free due to Arctic shrinkage, with timescales varying from next year to fifty years or more.
  
  wn.com/North_Pole
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  Russia
  Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
  
  wn.com/Russia
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  Sparta
  Coordinates: 37°4′55″N 22°25′25″E / 37.08194°N 22.42361°E / 37.08194; 22.42361
  Sparta (Doric Σπάρτα; Attic Σπάρτη Spartē), or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
  Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious, though at great cost. Sparta's defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Sparta's prominent role in Greece. However, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC.
  Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates (Spartan citizens, who enjoyed full rights), Mothakes (non-Spartan free men raised as Spartans), Perioikoi (freedmen), and Helots (state-owned serfs, enslaved non-Spartan local population). Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world.
  
  wn.com/Sparta
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  The Hague
  The Hague (Dutch: Den Haag pronounced [dɛnˈɦaˑχ] ( listen), officially 's-Gravenhage pronounced [ˈsχraˑvə(n)ˌɦaˑɣə] ( listen)) is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants (as of 1 September 2011), and more than one million inhabitants including the suburbs, it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation.
  The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands which constitutionally is Amsterdam. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands lives at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Most foreign embassies in the Netherlands and 150 international organisations are located in the city, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which makes The Hague one of the major cities hosting the United Nations, along with New York, Vienna and Geneva.
  
  wn.com/The_Hague
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  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
  The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
  
  wn.com/United_Kingdom
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States
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  Windsor Castle
  Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and for its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it has been used by a succession of monarchs and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. The castle's lavish, early 19th-century State Apartments are architecturally significant, described by art historian Hugh Roberts as "a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste". The castle includes the 15th-century St George's Chapel, considered by historian John Robinson to be "one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic" design. More than five hundred people live and work in Windsor, making it the largest inhabited castle in the world.
  Originally designed to protect Norman dominance around the outskirts of London, and to oversee a strategically important part of the River Thames, Windsor Castle was built as a motte and bailey, with three wards surrounding a central mound. Gradually replaced with stone fortifications, the castle withstood a prolonged siege during the First Barons' War at the start of the 13th century. Henry III built a luxurious royal palace within the castle during the middle of the century, and Edward III went further, rebuilding the palace to produce an even grander set of buildings in what would become "the most expensive secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England". Edward's core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for diplomatic entertainment.
  
  wn.com/Windsor_Castle
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  Windsor Great Park
  Windsor Great Park (locally referred to simply as the Great Park) is a large deer park of 5,000 acres (20 km²), to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. The park was, for many centuries, the private hunting ground of Windsor Castle and dates primarily from the mid-13th century. Now largely open to the public, the parkland is a popular recreation area for residents of the western London suburbs. It is owned and managed by the Crown Estate.
  The Great Park is a gently undulating area of varied landscape. It has sweeping deer lawns, small woods, coverts and areas covered by huge solitary ancient oak trees. There is a small river in the north of the park called the River Bourne – it is sometimes called "Battle Bourne". It runs through a number of ponds, particularly to the south. Chief amongst these are Great Meadow Pond and Obelisk Pond, near the great lake of Virginia Water. The most prominent hill is Snow Hill and the avenue of trees known as the Long Walk runs between here and Windsor Castle. The area is accessed by a number of gates: Queen Anne's Gate, Ranger's Gate, Forest Gate, Sandpit Gate, Prince Consort's gate, Blacknest Gate, Bishop's Gate and Bear's Rails Gate and the original medieval park pale can still be seen in places. The main Sheet Street Road (A332) into Windsor runs through the north-east of the park. On the western side of the park is The Village, built in the 1930s to house Royal estate workers. It has a popular village shop. Other buildings include the Royal Lodge, Cumberland Lodge, the Cranbourne Tower and Norfolk Farm. The park lies mostly within the civil parish of Old Windsor, though the eastern regions are in the Borough of Runnymede and there are small areas in the parishes of Winkfield and Sunninghill. Areas associated with or attached to the Great Park, but not officially within its borders include the Home Park, Mote Park, Flemish Farm, Cranbourne Chase, Forest Lodge and South Forest.
  
  wn.com/Windsor_Great_Park
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  Wormwood Scrubs
  Coordinates: 51°31′17″N 00°14′20″W / 51.52139°N 0.23889°W / 51.52139; -0.23889
  Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha (200 acres), and one of the largest areas of common land in London. The eastern part, known as Little Wormwood Scrubs, is cut off by Scrubs Lane and the West London Line railway. It has been an open public space since the Wormwood Scrubs Act of 21 July 1879, and is recognised by Natural England as an important site of natural significance.
  The southern edge of the Scrubs is the site of two locally important buildings. At the western end is HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs, built between 1875 and 1891 by convict labour. To the east of the prison is the Hammersmith Hospital campus, which includes the relocated Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital.
  Within the area are several sports facilities, including the Linford Christie stadium, tens of football pitches and a pony centre. Queens Park Rangers Football Club played on The Scrubs between 1888 and 1889.
  
  wn.com/Wormwood_Scrubs

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  Alexandra of Denmark
  Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was the wife of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions. As such, she was queen consort and Empress of India from 1901 to 1910.
  Her family had been relatively obscure until her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was chosen with the consent of the great powers to succeed his distant cousin, Frederick VII, to the Danish throne. At the age of sixteen, she was chosen as the future wife of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent of Queen Victoria. They married eighteen months later in 1863, the same year her father became Christian IX of Denmark and her brother, George, was appointed King of Greece. She was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901, the longest anyone has ever held that title, and became generally popular; her style of dress and bearing were copied by fashion-conscious women. Although largely excluded from wielding any political power, she unsuccessfully attempted to sway the opinion of British ministers and her husband's family to favour Greek and Danish interests. Her public duties were restricted to uncontroversial involvement in charitable work.
  
  wn.com/Alexandra_of_Denmark
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  Aselefech Mergia
  Aselefech Mergia Medessa (Amharic: አሰለፈች መርግአ; born 23 January 1985) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in the marathon. She was a bronze medallist in the event at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. She is a two-time winner of the Dubai Marathon and has finished in the top three at the Paris and London Marathons. Her personal best of 2:19:31 hours is a former Ethiopian record for the distance and places her within the top ten of all-time.
  She began taking part in professional road races in 2006, starting with a seventh place finish at the Delhi Half Marathon. She won the Plymouth Half Marathon in 2007, finishing with a time of 1:14:50. She was second in the women's 10K in Glasgow, Scotland, finishing behind Vivian Cheruiyot but setting a personal best of 32:19 for the distance.
  At the 2008 World Cross Country Championships she finished sixteenth in the senior race. With five Ethiopian runners ahead of her she missed out for a place on the victorious Ethiopian team. That year she won the Delhi Half Marathon with a personal best run of 1:08:17. She closed the year by winning a silver medal at the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.
  
  wn.com/Aselefech_Mergia
• Ayele Abshero
  Ayele Abshero Biza (born 28 December 1990) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who mainly competes in cross country and road races.
  He came to prominence with a junior silver medal at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships before taking the junior title in 2009. He won the 2008 Zevenheuvelenloop and 2011 Egmond Half Marathon races. He made the fastest ever marathon debut in history at the 2012 Dubai Marathon, winning in a time of 2:04:23 hours which was the fourth fastest ever.
  He began to take running seriously in order to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Tessema Abshero, who is an accomplished marathon runner. He also was inspired by the longevity and success of fellow Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie. Abshero ran at the 2007 Great Ethiopian Run, and just missed the podium with a fourth place finish behind Feyisa Lilesa. His first opportunity to represent Ethiopia at a major competition came at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He competed in the junior men's race and remained near the front in the later stages, eventually taking second place behind teammate Ibrahim Jeilan. This performance earned him two silver medals, individually and with the Ethiopian team. Later that year he took part in the Zevenheuvelenloop road race in Nijmegen. He won the race in a personal best time of 45:15 minutes, defeating Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele and his brother Tariku Bekele. This performance ranked him third fastest over the distance that year.
  
  wn.com/Ayele_Abshero
• Bobbi Gibb
  Roberta Louise "Bobbi" Gibb (born November 5, 1942, Winchester, Massachusetts) is the first woman to have run the entire Boston Marathon (1966). She is recognized by the Boston Athletic Association as the pre-sanctioned era women’s winner in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Gibb’s run in 1966 challenged prevalent prejudices and misconceptions about women's athletic capabilities.
  Bobbi Gibb grew up in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts during the 1940s and 1950s. She studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University School of Special Studies. Her father was a professor of chemistry at Tufts. She was already running through the woods with the neighborhood dogs when, in 1962, she met a distance runner at Tufts named William Bingay, who would later become a sailor and her first husband. They married on February 5, 1966, in California. Her running included daily commuting of the eight miles to school. She ran in white leather Red Cross nurses' shoes because there were no running shoes available for women at the time.
  
  wn.com/Bobbi_Gibb
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  Catherine Ndereba
  Wincatherine Nyambura Ndereba (born July 21, 1972) is a Kenyan marathon runner. She has twice won the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics and won silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008. She is also a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon. Ndereba broke the women's marathon world record in 2001, running 2:18:47 at the Chicago Marathon.
  In 2008, Ndereba was described by a Chicago Tribune sportswriter as the greatest women's marathoner of all time.
  Ndereba is from Gatunganga in Nyeri District, and went to Ngorano Secondary School where she pursued her running career. In 1994, she was recruited into its athletics program by the Kenya Prisons Service. Ndereba was awarded the 2004 and 2005 Kenyan Sportswoman of the Year awards. She was awarded the Order of the Golden Warrior by president Mwai Kibaki in 2005.
  Ndereba finished seventh at the 2009 London Marathon, equalling Katrin Dorre's record of 21 sub-2:30 hours marathons. She placed third at the Yokohama Marathon later that year, finishing the course in a time of 2:29:13 hours. She did not manage to finish another marathon race until October 2011, when she crossed the line in 2:30:14 hours for third at the Beijing Marathon.
  
  wn.com/Catherine_Ndereba
• Charilaos Vasilakos
  Charilaos Vasilakos (Greek: Χαρίλαος Βασιλάκος, 1877 - 1 December 1964) was a Greek athlete, and the first man to win a marathon race. He also won a silver medal at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
  He was born in Tripoli.
  On March 10, 1896, Greece held the first modern Panhellenic Games. The main purpose of the games was to help the country formulate the team that would compete in the first Modern Olympic Games, later the same year. Most of the participants were young army recruits who had been selected by their commanders for their athletic skill. Vasilakos, born and raised in a mountainous village in the Mani peninsula, already had a reputation as a strong long-distance runner, and won the race with a time of 3 hours and 18 minutes.
  Vasilakos was one of 17 athletes to start the marathon race on April 10, 1896. He finished in second place, behind Spiridon Louis, with a time of 3:06.03 as one of only nine finishers. Both races were on 40 kilometre courses rather than the now-standard 42.195 kilometres.
  
  wn.com/Charilaos_Vasilakos
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  Deena Kastor
  Deena Michelle Kastor (born Deena Michelle Drossin on February 14, 1973) is an American long-distance runner. She holds American records in the marathon, half-marathon, and numerous road distances. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She is also an eight-time national champion in cross country.
  In high school, Kastor won three California state cross country titles and two CIF California State Meet titles at 3200 meters while running for Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, California. She also competed in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships all four years of her prep career. At the University of Arkansas she was a four-time SEC champion and an eight-time All-American. Post-collegiately, Kastor ran under coaches Joe Vigil and Terrence Mahon (currently head of the Mammoth Lakes, California training group).
  Kastor has twice been runner up in the World Cross Country Championships.
  She holds U.S. records in the following events:
  Kastor formerly held the following record:
  
  wn.com/Deena_Kastor
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  Dorando Pietri
  Dorando Pietri, often wrongly spelt Petri (October 16, 1885, Correggio, Province of Reggio Emilia - February 7, 1942, Sanremo) was an Italian athlete famous for his dramatic finish and eventual disqualification in the marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
  Pietri was born in Mandrio, a frazione of Correggio, but spent his youth in Carpi (Emilia-Romagna region). Here he worked as a shop-boy at a confectionery shop. He was 1.59 m (5 ft., 2½ in.) tall.
  In September 1904 the most famous Italian runner of the time, Pericle Pagliani, took part in a race in Carpi. According to tradition, Pietri was attracted by the event and, still wearing his work clothes, ran to the finish ahead of Pagliani. A few days later Pietri débuted in a distance race, finishing second in the 3,000 m of Bologna.
  The following year he achieved his first international success, winning the 30 km in Paris. On April 2, 1906 Pietri won the qualifying marathon for the Olympic Games to be held in Athens that same year. In the Olympic race he retired due to intestinal illness when he was leading by 5 minutes.
  
  wn.com/Dorando_Pietri
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  Duncan Kibet
  Duncan Kibet (born 25 April 1978) is a runner from Kenya. He became the second fastest marathoner ever with a time of 2:04:27 hours, when he won the 2009 Rotterdam Marathon. After a series of fast performances by other runners in 2011 and 2012, Kibet is now the 5th fastest marathoner of all time on a certified world record eligible course and the 7th fastest marathoner of all time under any conditions.
  Kibet dropped out of school in 1997 due to financial problems. He did not run competitively until after encouraged by his elder brother Luke Metto, who had some success as a runner at the turn of the century. He also followed Luke by moving to France, participating in local races. He won the Lille Half Marathon in 2004. Kibet started marathoning without major success. He finished 8th at the 2002 Monaco Marathon and 2nd at the 2004 Caen Marathon. He had also been in a car accident at age of 16, almost losing his ability to walk. During his early career he was afraid to run and train seriously, fearing he would break his leg again.
  
  wn.com/Duncan_Kibet
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  Edward VII
  Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. He was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor by his son, George V.
  Before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
  The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services, and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. Edward fostered good relations between Great Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his efforts were unable to prevent the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
  
  wn.com/Edward_VII
• Ernst van Dyk
  Ernst Van Dyk (born 4 April 1973) is a South African wheelchair racer. He has won a record 9 wheelchair titles in the Boston Marathon. He was also awarded the Laureus World Sports Awards for Sportsperson with a Disability of the year for 2006. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, he won a bronze medal in the 400 metres. At the next Paralympics in Athens, he won a silver medal in the 800 metre race, another silver in the 1500 metres, and a bronze in the 5000 metres. At the Beijing Olympic Ernst won gold in the hand cycling marathon as well as bronze in the wheelchair marathon. Other handcycling achievements include: Obtaining a silver and bronze medal at the 2009 UCI World Championships held in Italy and taking double gold (road race and time trial) at the 2007 UCI World Championships held in Bordeaux.
  Ernst was born with congenital absence of both legs. His parents, two provincial-level athletes, recognized his athletic abilities and encouraged sports participation. At first he went to school in Graaff-Reinet, but the school couldn't cater for him. Then he attended the Elizabeth Conradie school for disabled children in Kimberley. He competed as a swimmer nationally in his teens. In 1992 he enrolled in Stellenbosch University and competed in the Barcelona Paralympics as a swimmer and wheelchair athlete. Thereafter, he concentrated on wheelchair athletics.
  
  wn.com/Ernst_van_Dyk
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  Fauja Singh
  Fauja Singh (born 1 April 1911) is a British centenarian marathon runner of Punjabi Sikh origin. He is a world record holder in his age bracket. His current personal best time for the London Marathon (2003) is 6 hours 2 minutes, and his marathon record, for age 90-plus, is 5 hours 40 minutes, at the age of 92, at the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
  Singh has stated, "I won't stop running until I die. The next target, God willing, is to be the oldest marathon runner ever." and, "At the time when people start retiring, I thought of running at the age of 63...and today I won the marathon at 93 years of age."^{[citation needed]}
  In 2004, Singh was featured in an advertising campaign for sportswear manufacturer Adidas alongside David Beckham and Muhammad Ali.
  Singh holds UK records for the 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, mile and 3000 m for his age group, records all set within a single 94 minute period.
  At the age of 100 (and a half), Singh attempted and accomplished eight world age group records in one day, at the special Ontario Masters Association Fauja Singh Invitational Meet, held at Birchmount Stadium in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Timed by officials in Canada, He ran the 100 metres in 23.14, 200 metres in 52.23, the 400 metres in 2:13.48, the 800 metres in 5:32.18, the 1500 metres in 11:27.81, the mile in 11:53.45, the 3000 metres in 24:52.47 and the 5000 metres in 49:57.39. Each time bested the previous record in that age division (some events had no previous record holder, as nobody over age 100 had ever attempted to run the distance). Some of his marks are significantly superior to the listed world record in the M95 age group as well.
  
  wn.com/Fauja_Singh
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  Frank Shorter
  Frank Charles Shorter (born October 31, 1947) is a former American long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. His victory is credited with igniting the running boom in the United States of the 1970s.
  Frank Shorter was born in Munich, Germany, where his father, physician Samuel Shorter, served in the U.S. Army. He grew up in Middletown, New York. After earning his high school diploma from the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Massachusetts in 1965, Shorter graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut with a bachelor of arts degree (B.A.) in 1969, and the University of Florida College of Law in Gainesville, Florida with a juris doctor degree (J.D.) in 1974.
  In the October 2011 issue of Runner's World, an article by John Brant detailed the traumatic household life Frank and his siblings suffered at the hands of his father and the buckled end of his belt. While his father enjoyed great prominence in his community, his behavior may have reflected, "a profound narcissistic personality disorder" according to Barbara duPlessis, Frank's sister. With the publication of the Runner's World article, Mr. Shorter will begin to elaborate on stopping similar cycles of violence in more detail and in public.
  
  wn.com/Frank_Shorter
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  Geoffrey Mutai
  Geoffrey Kiprono Mutai (born 7 October 1981 in Mumberes, Koibatek District) is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. On 18 April 2011 at the Boston Marathon, Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds (4:42 per mile pace), though this time will not be recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as a world record since the Boston course does not meet the criteria to be eligible for the mark. His other significant victories include the Monaco Marathon. He is also a strong half marathon runner, with wins at the Valencia Half Marathon and RAK Half Marathon, and a best of 59 minutes 30 seconds (4:33 per mile pace), to his name. He also won the 2011 New York City Marathon with a time of 2 hours 5 minutes and 5 seconds (4:46 per mile pace), breaking the course record set by Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia in 2001.
  Mutai started running in 1994 while at Tuiyotich Primary School in Nakuru. He graduated from primary school in 1998, but financial constraints prevented him from joining a secondary school. Instead, he worked in a farm, but continued his running career. He was selected to represent Kenya at the 2002 World Junior Championships, but could not make the trip as he had no birth certificate. Soon later, he was injured and almost quit running. He later joined Kapng’entuny Athletics Club in Eldoret. In 2007 he made his marathon debut, finishing second in the inaugural Kass Marathon in Eldoret. At this race he met his current manager Gerard Van de Veen of Volare Sports, who provided him with the opportunity of competing abroad.
  
  wn.com/Geoffrey_Mutai
• Getu Feleke
  Getu Feleke (Amharic: ገቱ ፈለቀ; born 28 November 1986) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who runs mainly in half marathon and marathon races. He won the 2010 Amsterdam Marathon with a course record time of 2:05:44 and set his personal best of 2:04:50 hours in a second place finish at the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon.
  He began competing at the top level at the end of 2008, with his first major run coming at the Montferland Run 15K race. He was among the leaders at 10 km (6 mi) but fell back and eventually ended up in sixth place. He stepped up a distance for the City-Pier-City Half Marathon in March the following year and set a personal best of 1:00:36 for the event, taking fourth place behind fellow Ethiopian Dereje Tesfaye. His debut over the marathon distance came as part of a "débutantes only" theme at the Vienna City Marathon that year. He clocked a time of 2:11:42 which was enough for seventh place.
  He returned to the Netherlands in September to run his first major 10-mile race – the Dam tot Damloop – and this time he reached the podium. By finishing in third place with a time of 45:29, he was only beaten by the experienced Kenyan runners Moses Masai and Charles Kamathi. The competition served as preparation for the Amsterdam Marathon the following month. In a quick-paced race, it was Kenyan Gilbert Yegon who won, beating Haile Gebrselassie's course record. Although he was three minutes behind, Feleke's run of 2:09:32 for eighth was still a large improvement to his personal best. A return to the Montferland Run, his last race of the year, saw no progress upon his 2008 performance, as he finished sixth for a second time.
  
  wn.com/Getu_Feleke
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  Haile Gebrselassie
  Haile Gebrselassie (Amharic: ኃይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ^?, haylē gebre silassē; born 18 April, 1973) is an Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.
  Gebrselassie had major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. He broke 61 Ethiopian National Records ranging from 800 meters to the marathon, set 27 world records, and is widely considered one of the greatest distance runners in history.
  In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:03:59, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. The record stood for three years. Since he was over the age of 35, that mark still stands as the Masters Age group world record.
  
  wn.com/Haile_Gebrselassie
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  Hal Higdon
  Hal Higdon (born June 17, 1931) is an American writer and runner. He has contributed to Runner's World magazine longer than any other writer. He is the author of 34 books, including the best-selling Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. He has worked as a freelance writer since 1959, and has written a variety of subjects including a children's book that was made into an animated feature. He ran eight times in the United States Olympic Trials and won four World Masters Championships. He is one of the founders of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA).
  He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. In 1947, he participated in track at the University of Chicago's Laboratory School, placing fourth as a sophomore with a 5:04.7 mile. Due to switching schools, he did not run in his junior year, but he started again in his senior year and has been running ever since.
  While attending Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Higdon won the Midwest Conference titles in the mile, half-mile and cross-country. His best mile time (post-college time) was 4:13.6, and he had notable success at running long-distance races. He participated in the US Olympic Trials in 1952, running in the 10,000 meters race. Subsequently he entered the trials seven times over the years, with his best performance being fifth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 1960.
  
  wn.com/Hal_Higdon
• Heraclides Ponticus
  Heraclides Ponticus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικός; c. 390 BC – c. 310 BC), also known as Herakleides and Heraklides of Pontus, was a Greek philosopher and astronomer who lived and died at Heraclea Pontica, now Karadeniz Ereğli, Turkey. He is best remembered for proposing that the earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours. He is also frequently hailed as the originator of the heliocentric theory, although this is doubted.
  Heraclides' father was Euthyphron, a wealthy nobleman who sent him to study at the Platonic Academy in Athens under its founder Plato and under his successor Speusippus. According to Suda, Plato, on his departure for Sicily in 361/360 BC, left the Academy in the charge of Heraclides. Heraclides was nearly elected successor to Speusippus as head of the academy in 339/338 BC, but narrowly lost to Xenocrates.
  Like the Pythagoreans Hicetas and Ecphantus, Heraclides proposed that the apparent daily motion of the stars was created by the rotation of the Earth on its axis once a day. This view contradicted the accepted Aristotelian model of the universe, which said that the earth was fixed and that the stars and planets in their respective spheres might also be fixed. Simplicius says that Heraclides proposed that the irregular movements of the planets can be explained if the earth moves while the sun stays still.
  
  wn.com/Heraclides_Ponticus
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  Herodotus
  Herodotus ( /hɨˈrɒdətəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēródotos) was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (circa 484 – 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.The Histories—his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced—is a record of his "inquiry" (or ἱστορία historía, a word that passed into Latin and acquired its modern meaning of "history"), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful, he claimed he was reporting only what had been told to him. Little is known of his personal history.
  The Histories, otherwise known as The Researches or The Inquiries, were divided by later Alexandrian editors into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively. At its simplest and broadest level of meaning, The Histories is structured as a dynastic history of four Persian kings:
  
  wn.com/Herodotus
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  Irina Mikitenko
  Irina Mikitenko, née Volynskaya (Russian: Ирина Волынская (Микитенко); born 23 August 1972 in Bakanas, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union), is a Kazakhstan-born German long-distance runner. She is a former winner of both the Berlin and London marathons.
  Mikitenko began participating in long-distance running at the age of 14. Under her maiden name of Volynskaya, she represented Kazakhstan in the 5,000 metres at the 1996 Olympic Games, but failed to make the finals. Since she has German ancestors, she and her husband immigrated in 1996 to the German state of Hesse.
  In 1998, she became the German record holder in the 10,000 metres, and the year after, in the 5,000 metres. In the 5,000 metres, she bettered Kathrin Weßel's time of 14:54.32 with her fourth-place time of 14:50.17 at the 1999 World Athletics Championships. On 7 September of the same year, she set the current German record of 14:42.03 minutes in Berlin.
  A year later, Mikitenko became the German champion in cross-country running, defending her national title over 5,000 metres. She won twice consecutively at Luxembourg's prestigious Eurocross meeting in 1999 and 2000. In August 2000, she broke the 17-year-old record of Brigitte Kraus in the 3,000 metres. She placed fifth in the 5,000 metres at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, and finished in the same position at the 2001 World Athletics Championships in Edmonton.
  
  wn.com/Irina_Mikitenko
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  James Kwambai
  James Kipsang Kwambai (born February 28, 1983) is a runner from Kenya, who specialises in marathons.
  Kwambai went to the Kondabilet Primary School in Marakwet East District, but dropped out at standard seven.
  He won the Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale in 2002, breaking the course record by over a minute. In 2006 Kwambai won the Brescia Marathon and Beijing Marathon, which were his first two marathons. He also won the 2008 and the 2009 Saint Silvester Road Race.
  He finished second at the 2008 Berlin Marathon, where Haile Gebrselassie set a new marathon world record. Kwambai's time was 2:05:36, that made him the seventh fastest ever marathon runner at the time. At the 2009 Rotterdam Marathon Kwambai again finished second (behind Duncan Kibet) in a time of 2:04:27, the third fastest ever marathon at the time. At the 2010 New York City Marathon he completed the race in 2:11:31, which brought him fifth place. He returned to defend his title at the Saint Silvester race in São Paulo but ended up in third place behind Marílson dos Santos and Barnabas Kosgei.
  
  wn.com/James_Kwambai
• Jean Driscoll
  Jean Driscoll is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive first place finishes from 1990 to 1996. Driscoll participated in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning a total of five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in events ranging from 200 meters to the marathon.
  Born with spina bifida, Driscoll grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She began using a wheelchair in high school and became involved in a variety of wheelchair sports. She was recruited to play wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois, and while there she also joined the school's wheelchair track and field team. She competed at her first Paralympics in 1988, taking bronze in the 200 and 400 meter races, silver in the 4×100 meter relay, and gold in the 4×200 meter relay.
  Her first major win in racing came in 1989, when she beat Candace Cable at the Lilac Bloomsday 12k in Spokane, Washington. Following this success, her coach Marty Morse convinced her to try a marathon. Driscoll participated in the 1989 Chicago Marathon and finished fast enough to qualify for the next year's Boston Marathon. At Morse's urging, she reluctantly agreed to race in Boston; at the time, she was not interested in becoming a regular marathoner and wished to continue racing shorter distances.
  
  wn.com/Jean_Driscoll
• Jeff Galloway
  Jeff Galloway (born July 12, 1945 in Raleigh, North Carolina) is an American Olympian and the author of Galloway's Book on Running.
  A lifetime runner, Galloway was an All-American collegiate athlete and a member of the 1972 US Olympic Team in the 10,000 meters. He remains a competitive athlete, continuing through a successful masters running career. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Galloway Productions, which conducts a broad range of training programs and events yearly; he also owns two running specialty stores. He has written several books on training and writes a monthly column for Runner's World magazine.
  In high school, at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta Georgia, Galloway recorded bests of 4:28 in the mile and 9:48 in the two mile; he became the state champion in the latter event.^{[citation needed]}
  Running for Wesleyan University, he developed as a competitor, earning All-American honors in cross-country and track, clocking 4:12 in the mile, and noted times of 9:06 in the two mile and 14:10 for three.
  
  wn.com/Jeff_Galloway
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  Joan Benoit
  Joan Benoit Samuelson (born May 16, 1957) is an American marathon runner, who won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the year that the women's marathon was introduced. As a result she was the first ever women's Olympic marathon champion. Benoit Samuelson still holds the fastest times for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon and the Olympic Marathon. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman at that race for 28 years.
  Born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, of French and Scandinavian ancestry,^{[citation needed]} Benoit took to long-distance running to help recover from a broken leg suffered while slaloming. At Bowdoin College she excelled in athletics. In 1977, after two years at Bowdoin, she accepted a running scholarship to North Carolina State, where she began concentrating solely on her running. She earned All-America honors at NC State in both 1977 and 1978, and in 1978 helped lead the Wolfpack to the Atlantic Coast Conference cross-country championship. After returning to Bowdoin to complete her degree, she entered the 1979 Boston Marathon as a relative unknown. She won the race, wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, in 2:35:15, knocking eight minutes off the competition record. She repeated that success with a victory again in 1983, that took more than two minutes off the world's best time, set by Grete Waitz in the London Marathon just the day before, despite having had surgery on her Achilles tendons two years earlier. Her Boston course record of 2:22:43, set in 1983, was not broken for another 11 years.
  
  wn.com/Joan_Benoit
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  Johnny Hayes
  John "Johnny" Joseph Hayes (April 10, 1886 – August 25, 1965) was an American athlete, a member of the Irish American Athletic Club, and winner of the marathon race at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Hayes' Olympic victory contributed to the early growth of long-distance running and marathoning in the United States.
  Born in New York City to a family of Irish emigrants (from Nenagh in Co. Tipperary), Johnny Hayes is probably best known for winning the controversial marathon race at the London Olympics. Hayes is one of only three male American athletes to win the Olympic Marathon, (the other two being Thomas Hicks in 1904 and Frank Shorter in 1972).
  In 1905 he had joined Bloomingdale Brothers as an assistant to the manager of the sporting goods department. At night he trained on a cinder track on the roof of the Bloomingdales building in New York. He was promoted to manager of the department after returning from his Olympic victory.
  Hayes started his athletics career with a fifth place finish at the 1906 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:55:38, running for the St. Bartholemew Athletic Club. He improved on that the following year by finishing third in Boston with a time of 2:30:38 and winning the inaugural Yonkers Marathon. In 1908 he finished second, 21 seconds behind Thomas Morrissey in the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:26:34 and thus qualified for the Olympic Games held in London that same year.
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Hayes
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  Johnny Kelley
  John Adelbert "Johnny" Kelley (September 6, 1907 – October 6, 2004) was an American long-distance runner who twice represented his native country at the Summer Olympics, in 1936 and 1948.
  Born in West Medford, Massachusetts as one of ten children, Kelley ran track and cross-country at Arlington High School in Massachusetts. He did not finish his first Boston Marathon in 1928, but eventually competed in a record 61 Boston Marathons.
  A legend of the marathon, Kelley won the 1935 and 1945 runnings of the Boston Marathon. He finished in second place at Boston a record seven times. Between 1934 to 1950, he finished in the top five 15 times at Boston, consistently running in the 2:30s. He ran his last full marathon at Boston in 1992 at the age of 84, his 61st start and 58th finish there. For two more years he ran the last seven miles. Kelley also ran the Yonkers Marathon 29 times.
  A member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he finished 18th in the marathon.
  Kelley ran his 50th Boston Marathon in 1981; the event was also his 108th career marathon.
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Kelley
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  Kathrine Switzer
  Kathrine Switzer (born January 5, 1947) is the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry. She entered and completed the race in 1967, five years before women were officially allowed to compete in it. Her finishing time of approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes was nearly an hour behind the first female finisher, Bobbi Gibb (who ran unregistered). She registered under the gender-neutral "K. V. Switzer". It was not done in an attempt to mislead the officials; she had long used "K. V. Switzer" to sign the articles she wrote for her college paper. Race official Jock Semple attempted to remove her from the race, and is noted to have shouted, "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers." However, Switzer's boyfriend Tom Miller, who was running with her, shoved Semple aside and sent him flying. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines.
  As a result of her run, the AAU barred women from all competition with male runners, on pain of losing the right to compete.
  
  wn.com/Kathrine_Switzer
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  Liliya Shobukhova
  Liliya Bulatovna Shobukhova (Russian: Лилия Булатoвнa Шoбухова, née Russian: Шагбaлова, Shabalova; born 13 November 1977) is a Russian long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. She previously specialized in the 3000 and 5000 metres track events.
  She started her career in middle-distance running in 2001 and reached the final at both the European Indoor Championships and European Athletics Championships in 2002. She moved onto longer distances and, two years later, she represented Russia at the 2004 Athens Olympics and reached the 5000 m final. She ran at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, but her first major successes came the following year when she won silver medals at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2006 European Athletics Championships.
  Shobukhova began to compete in road races, winning the 2007 Prague Half Marathon, but she still reached the 5000 m final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. After running in the 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships, she focused on road races full time. The move paid dividends for her as she won at the Chicago Marathon three times straight from 2009 to 2011, as well as the 2010 London Marathon. Her personal best time of 2:18:20 hours is the Russian record for the event and makes her the second fastest woman ever after Paula Radcliffe.
  
  wn.com/Liliya_Shobukhova
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  Marius Bakken
  Marius Bakken (born March 27, 1978 in Sandefjord) is a Norwegian runner who specializes in the 5000 metres, having run distances from 800 to 10,000 metres in his early career. He represents IL Runar.
  He finished ninth at the 2001 World Championships, fourteenth at the 2002 European Championships and twelfth at the 2005 World Championships. In addition he competed at the 1999 World Championships and the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004 without success. He became Norwegian champion in 1500 m in 2001, 2003 and 2004 and in 5000 m in 2003 and 2005. Following a disappointing 2006 European Championships, Bakken announced his intentions to concentrate on medicine studies in 2007.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Mary of Teck
  Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953) was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V.
  Although technically a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and brought up in the United Kingdom. Her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck, who was of German extraction, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a member of the British Royal Family. To her family, she was informally known as "May", after her birth month. At the age of 24 she was betrothed to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, but six weeks after the announcement of the engagement he died unexpectedly of pneumonia. The following year she became engaged to Albert Victor's next surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husband's accession she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales. As his queen consort from 1910, she supported her husband through the First World War, his ill-health and major political changes arising from the aftermath of the war and the rise of socialism and nationalism. After George's death in 1936, her eldest son Edward became King-Emperor, but to her dismay he abdicated the same year in order to marry twice-divorced American socialite Mrs. Wallis Simpson. She supported her second son, Albert, who succeeded to the throne as George VI, until his death in 1952. She died the following year, at the beginning of the reign of her granddaughter, Elizabeth II. Briefly, there were three queens in the country: Mary; her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; and Elizabeth II.
  
  wn.com/Mary_of_Teck
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  Michel Bréal
  "Breal" redirects here. For the Rapper see B-Real
  Michel Jules Alfred Bréal (26 March 1832–1915), French philologist, was born at Landau in Rhenish Bavaria. He is often identified as a founder of modern semantics.
  After studying at Weissenburg, Metz and Paris, he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1852. In 1857 he went to Berlin, where he studied Sanskrit under Franz Bopp and Weber. On his return to France he obtained an appointment in the department of oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Impériale. In 1864 he became professor of comparative grammar at the Collège de France, in 1875 member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, in 1879 inspecteur général for higher education until the abolition of the office in 1888. In 1890 he was made commander of the Legion of Honour.
  Among his works, which deal mainly with mythological and philological subjects, may be mentioned:
  He also wrote pamphlets on education in France, the teaching of ancient languages, and the reform of French orthography. In 1906 he published Pour mieux connaitre Homère.
  
  wn.com/Michel_Bréal
• Mizuki Noguchi
  Mizuki Noguchi (野口 みずき, Noguchi Mizuki^?, born July 3, 1978) is a Japanese professional long-distance runner who specialises in the marathon event. She is an Olympic champion over the distance and set two world records in 2005.
  Initially starting out as a track and cross country athlete, her first major success was becoming the Asian cross country champion at age 21. She soon switched to road running, however, focusing on the half marathon. She won the individual and team silver medals at the 1999 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, and won a second team silver with a fourth place finish at the same competition in 2000.
  A switch to the marathon event demonstrated her talents further: she won the Nagoya and Osaka Women's Marathons, and took the silver medal in the marathon at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. Her good form continued and she became the Olympic champion in the marathon at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She won the Berlin Marathon the following year, setting world records at 25 km and 30 km along the way, and finishing with a personal best of 2:19:12 – a new Asian record for the distance. The 25K world record was beaten by Mary Keitany of Kenya in 2010, who ran the distance in 1:19:53 hours.
  
  wn.com/Mizuki_Noguchi
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  Naoko Takahashi
  Naoko Takahashi (高橋 尚子, Takahashi Naoko^?, born May 6, 1972 in Gifu, Japan) is a Japanese long-distance runner competing mainly in the marathon. She is widely known for her victory in the women's marathon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, a performance that stands as the current Olympic record. At the 2001 Berlin Marathon, Takahashi became the first woman to break the 2 hour 20 minute barrier while setting a world record. That record was broken just one week later by Catherine Ndereba. In the women's marathon event (and not counting multiple records set by the same athlete), she still holds the 7th best time and the 3rd best Japanese marathon performance behind Yoko Shibui (2:19:41) and Mizuki Noguchi (2:19:10). She is related to former Morning Musume leader Hitomi Yoshizawa. She announced her retirement in October 2008.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Naoko_Takahashi
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  Paula Radcliffe
  Paula Jane Radcliffe, MBE (born 17 December 1973) is an English long-distance runner. She is the current women's world record holder in the marathon with her time of 2:15:25 hours. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon, two-time New York Marathon champion, and won the 2002 Chicago Marathon.
  Radcliffe is a former world champion in the marathon, half marathon and cross country. She has also been European champion over 10,000 metres and in cross country. On the track, Radcliffe won the 10,000 metres silver medal at the 1999 World Championships and was the 2002 Commonwealth champion at 5000 metres. She has represented Great Britain at the Olympics four times consecutively (1996 to 2008), but has not won a medal on the Olympic stage.
  Radcliffe is an asthma sufferer who is against the use of drugs in sport. She is married to her coach, Gary Lough, and has two children.
  Her running has earned her a number of accolades including the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Laureus World Comeback of the Year, IAAF World Athlete of the Year, AIMS World Athlete of the Year (three times) and a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). She has also been nominated for World Sportswoman of the year on several occasions. In 2010, she was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.
  
  wn.com/Paula_Radcliffe
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  Pheidippides
  Pheidippides (Greek: Φειδιππίδης, sometimes given as Phidippides, by Herodotus and Plutarch, or as Philippides), hero of Ancient Greece, is the central figure in a story which was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon.
  The first recorded account showing a courier running from Marathon to Athens to announce victory is from within Lucian's prose on the first use of the word Joy as a greeting in A Slip of the tongue in Greeting.
  The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC), an Athenian herald or hemerodrome (translated as "day-runner" (Kyle 2007),courier (Larcher 1806), "professional-running courier" (Sears 2003) or "day-long runner" (Miller 2006)), was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran 240 km (150 mi) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικωμεν’ (nikomen–"We have won"), as stated by Lucian "khairate, nikomen" ("hail, we are the winners") to then collapse and die.
  
  wn.com/Pheidippides
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  Pierre de Coubertin
  Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ də kubɛʁtɛ̃]; 1 January 1863 – 2 September 1937) was a French educationalist and historian, founder of the International Olympic Committee, and is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games. Born into a French aristocratic family, he became an academic and studied a broad range of topics, most notably education and history.
  Pierre Frédy was born in Paris on 1 January 1863 into an established aristocratic family. He was the fourth child of Baron Charles Louis Frédy, Baron de Coubertin and Marie–Marcelle Gigault de Crisenoy. Family tradition held that the Frédy name had first arrived in France in the early 15th century, and the first recorded title of nobility granted to the family was given by Louis XI to an ancestor, also named Pierre de Frédy, in 1477. But other branches of his family tree delved even further into French history, and the annals of both sides of his family included nobles of various stations, military leaders, and associates of kings and princes of France.
  
  wn.com/Pierre_de_Coubertin
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  Plutarch
  
  Plutarch (English pronunciation: /'pluːtɑːk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarkhos, Koine Greek: [plŭːtarkʰos]) then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Μέστριος Πλούταρχος),c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.
  Plutarch was born in 46 AD in the small town of Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia. His family was wealthy. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but it was probably Nikarchus (Greek: Nίκαρχoς), from the common habit of Greek families to repeat a name in alternate generations. The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony.
  His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, where Timon is spoken of in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not give way to excessive grief at the death of their two year old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. Interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation.
  
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  Queen Victoria
  Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.
  Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
  She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.
  
  wn.com/Queen_Victoria
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  Ranulph Fiennes
  Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet, OBE (born 7 March 1944), better known as Ranulph (Ran) Fiennes, is a British adventurer and holder of several endurance records. He is also a prolific writer. Fiennes served in the British Army for eight years including a period on counter-insurgency service while attached to the army of the Sultanate of Oman. He later undertook numerous expeditions and was the first person to visit both the North and South Poles by surface means and the first to completely cross Antarctica on foot. In May 2009, at the age of 65, he climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. According to the Guinness Book of World Records he is the world's greatest living explorer. Fiennes has written numerous books about his army service and his expeditions as well as a book defending Robert Falcon Scott from modern revisionists.
  Fiennes was born on 7 March 1944 in Windsor, Berkshire shortly after the death of his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, commanding the Royal Scots Greys, who died of wounds on 24 November 1943. His mother was Audrey Joan, younger daughter of Sir Percy Newson, Bt. Fiennes inherited his father's baronetcy, becoming the 3rd Baronet of Banbury, at his birth. Fiennes is the third cousin of actors Joseph and Ralph Fiennes and is a distant cousin to the British Royal Family.
  
  wn.com/Ranulph_Fiennes
• Ricardo Abad
  Ricardo Abad Martínez (Tafalla, January 8, 1971) is a Spanish ultrarunner. He holds the Guinness record of consecutive marathons run on consecutive days.
  At the moment he is executing the project "500 marathons in 500 days". He intends to complete 500 marathons in 500 consecutive days. He started the 1st of October 2010 and wants to finish on February 12, 2012. He is running at least on marathon in every one of the 50 provinces of Spain. Abad sells each of the 21.000 km he is planning to run at the rate of one euro each and will donate the money to ANFAS, a Spanish organization that works in favour of people with intellectual disabilities.
  Ricardo broke the Guinness record of consecutive marathons (366) the 1st of October 2011 in Madrid. He plans to complete 500 marathons in Barcelona on February 12, 2012. Before him, the record was held by the Belgian Stefaan Engels (365). And before Engels, the record was held by Ricardo Abad with 150 marathons in a row in 2009.
  Ricardo has already run more than 450 marathons in a row although he works in a factory 8 hours per day in shifts: week during the mornings, another during the evening and another during the night. When he works in te morning or at night, he runs in the afternoon. When he works at the evening, he runs during the morning. Because of this, sometimes he has run two marathons in less than 12 hours.
  
  wn.com/Ricardo_Abad
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  Robert Browning
  Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
  Browning was born in Camberwell - a district now forming part of the borough of Southwark in South London, England - the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning. His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England, earning about £150 per year. Browning’s paternal grandfather was a wealthy slave owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies, but Browning's father was an abolitionist. Browning's father had been sent to the West Indies to work on a sugar plantation, but revolted by the slavery there, he returned to England. Browning’s mother was a daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee, and his Scottish wife. Browning had one sister, Sarianna. Browning's paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, who had inherited a plantation in St Kitts, was rumoured within the family to have had some Jamaican mixed race ancestry but there is little evidence for this. It seems to be only an anecdotal family story. Robert's father, a literary collector, amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them rare. Thus, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources. His mother, to whom he was very close, was a devout nonconformist and a talented musician. His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brother's companion in his later years, after the death of his wife in 1861. His father encouraged his children's interest in literature and the arts.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Browning
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  Samuel Wanjiru
  Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011) was a Kenyan athlete who specialized in long distance running. He became a professional at a young age and broke the world record in the half marathon when he was 18 years old. In 2007, he broke the 20km road running record and improved the half marathon record by over twenty seconds.
  He moved to the full marathon and won the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. The following year, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury.
  In 2011, he died after falling off a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute. Police are still uncertain whether his death was a suicide, homicide, or accidental.
  Samuel Kamau was brought up with his brother Simon Njoroge in poverty by his mother Hannah Wanjiru, daughter of Samuel Kamau, and took her given name as a surname, because she was a single mother. He dropped out of school aged about 12, because they could not afford the school fees.
  
  wn.com/Samuel_Wanjiru
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  Spyridon Louis
  Spyridon ("Spyros") Louis (Greek: Σπυρίδων "Σπύρος" Λούης, sometimes transliterated Loues; January 12, 1873 – March 26, 1940) was a Greek water-carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming a national hero.
  Louis was born in the town of Marousi, which is now a suburb to the north of Athens, into a poor farmer's family. Louis's father sold mineral water in Athens, at the time lacking a central water supply, and his son helped him by transporting it.
  After the decision to revive the Olympic Games in 1894, preparations were made to organise the first modern Olympics in Athens. One of the races would be the marathon, an event which had never been held before. It had been suggested by Frenchman Michel Bréal, who was inspired by the legend of the messenger Phidippides, who had run from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce the Athenian victory in the Battle of Marathon.
  The Greeks were very enthusiastic about this new event and decided to stage qualifying races for would-be Greek participants. These were organised by an army colonel, Papadiamantopoulos, who had been Louis' commanding officer during his military service (1893–1895). The first qualifying race—the first ever marathon race—was held on March 22, and was won by Kharilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours, 18 minutes. Louis participated in the second qualifying race, two weeks later. Papadiamantopoulos, who knew Louis' running talents, had convinced him to try out. Louis crossed the line in fifth place, behind winner Dimitrios Deligiannis.
  
  wn.com/Spyridon_Louis
• Stefaan Engels
  Stefaan Engels (born 7 April 1961, Ghent, Belgium), also known as "marathon man", is a Belgian marathoner and triathlete, the first man who finished 365 consecutive marathons in a single year with 365 marathons completed in 2010. He also holds the record for the most Ironman Triathlons in a year with 20 over 2007 and 2008.
  Engels averaged around four hours to complete each marathon with a best time of 2 hours and 56 minutes. He ran 15,401 kilometres (9,570 mi) during his marathons over 2010. Engels said that a slow pace was the key. Before him, the record was held by Ricardo Abad Martínez of Spain with 150 marathons in a row in 2009. Abad is the current world record holder.
  Of his feats, Engels described: "I don't regard my marathon year as torture. It's more like a regular job...I am running just as Joe Average goes to work on Monday morning, whether or not he feels like it. I don't always feel like running, but when I am done, I take a shower, have some physiotherapy for an hour, and that wraps up my day."
  
  wn.com/Stefaan_Engels
• Sy Mah
  Thian K. "Sy" Mah (August 2, 1926 – November 7, 1988) was an assistant professor of physical education at the University of Toledo and a Canadian long-distance runner who held a Guinness World Records mark for the most lifetime marathons (524).
  The son of a Chinese immigrant family, Mah was born in Bashaw, Alberta in 1926.English was his native language and he did not speak Mandarin, but he was able to write his Chinese name. He earned an arts degree from the University of Alberta in 1952, a physical education degree from McMaster University in 1960, a bachelor of education from the University of Toronto in 1962, and a masters degree in education from the University of Toronto around 1970. Mah taught in Ontario from 1955 to 1970. From 1970 to 1988, he also established and taught exercise and cardiac rehabilitation classes at the University of Toledo where he was a physical education instructor.
  Mah joined the Chinese Association of Greater Toledo in 1970 and later served as its program director.
  
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  Terry Fox
  Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox CC OD, (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 mi), and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$500 million has been raised in his name.
  Fox was a distance runner and basketball player for his Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, high school and Simon Fraser University. His right leg was amputated in 1977 after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, though he continued to run using an artificial leg. He also played wheelchair basketball in Vancouver, winning three national championships.
  
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  Tiki Gelana
  Erba Tiki Gelana (born 22 October 1987) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in marathon races. Her personal best of 2:18:58 hours is the Ethiopian national record for the event. She won the 2011 Amsterdam Marathon and the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon.
  A cousin of 2000 Olympic marathon champion Gezahegne Abera, Tiki began competing in road races in Ethiopia and came fourth at the 2004 Great Ethiopian Run. She went to Catalonia in Spain in 2006 and made her debut over the half marathon distance, including wins in Mataró and Terrassa. She won the San Silvestre Barcelonesa 10K race at the end of the year. She travelled to Japan in 2007 and won the 10K at the Sanyo Road Race – her time of 31:54 minutes made her the third fastest Ethiopian that year. She won the 2008 Women First 5K in Addis Ababa in March, then came fourth at the high-profile World 10K Bangalore in May. She debuted on the European track and field circuit that summer and set a 5000 metres best of 15:17.74 minutes at the Internationales Stadionfest and a 10,000 metres best of 31:27.80 minutes at the Ostrava Golden Spike.
  
  wn.com/Tiki_Gelana
• Violet Piercy
  Violet Piercy was an English long-distance runner who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on October 3, 1926 with a time of 3:40:22. Piercy was reported to have run unofficially and her mark was set on the Polytechnic Marathon course between Windsor and London.
  According to the IAAF, Piercy's mark stood 37 years until Merry Lepper's 3:37:07 performance at the Western Hemisphere Marathon on December 16, 1963.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Violet_Piercy
• Yemane Tsegay
  Yemane Adhane Tsegay (born 8 April 1985) is an Ethiopian long distance runner who specialises in the marathon. He won the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon with a personal best time of 2:04:48 hours. He has won marathons in Gyeongju, Macau and Taipei.
  He began competing in international races in 2008 and finished third at the Casablanca Marathon that year, posting a time of 2:13:29. He had his first victory at the end of the year, winning the Macau Marathon in December. He opened 2009 with a second place finish at the Marrakech Marathon in January. Yemane made significant progress at the Paris International Marathon in April that year: although he finished in fourth place, he clocked a much improved personal best of 2:06:30.
  He qualified to represent Ethiopia at the World Championships in Athletics and put in a strong debut performance at the 2009 World Championship Marathon race with a time of 2:08:42, just seven seconds behind bronze medallist Tsegay Kebede. Two months later he recorded his third consecutive sub-2:09 time, breaking the course record at the Gyeongju International Marathon in the process.
  
  wn.com/Yemane_Tsegay

Marathon (2010)

Genres

• Drama

Taglines:

how far our dreams can take us before we cross the finishing line

Quotes:

• Painting by Numbers
• I Don't Have a Dancing Problem
• Some Lovely Parting Gifts
• Don't Ask If This Is About You
• Home Is Where the Van Is
• Gouge 'em Out, They're Useless Anyway
• Where We Hide
• Names Have Been Changed (To Protect the Guilty)
• Matchmaker, Matchmaker
• Closing Time at the Distortion Factory
• Jolly Roger
• Gravity's Temptation
• Courting My Soul

• Delicately Mine
• Rotate
• Come Home
• Talk & Alcohol
• Any Other Day
• Better Things Than I
• Gambler's Greed
• Year of You
• Stand Back
• Juliet
• Leave You Here
• 14 Days

• Better Things Than I
• Circles of Doubt
• Daily Grind
• Serpents
• Across the River
• Cutlass 71
• Feet Like Fire
• Faulkner's Notes

• Ozone Layer
• Heart of another one
• Norm
• The beauty of silence
• Casanovas
• Somewhere
• Crime (he didn't commit)
• Magic of music

• Ozone Layer
• Red Ride
• Norm
• Patterns Of The Landscape
• Heart Of Another One
• Open Field
• Casanovas
• The Beauty Of Silence
• Wall
• Beyond The Veil