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The first Marathon was run by Pheidippides to announce a Greek defeat of the Persians (Iranians). A this point one guess is as good as another. And this is just a guess. But they do seem to have lots of friends in that neighborhood.... from Wkipedia..... The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC), an Athenian herald or hemerodrome[2] (translated as "day-runner" (Kyle 2007),[5] courier (Larcher 1806),[6][7] "professional-running courier" (Sears 2003)[2] or "day-long runner" (Miller 2006)[8]), was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 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[9]–"We have won"), as stated by Lucian "chairete, nikomen" ("hail, we are the winners")[10] to then collapse and die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides