Por que uma maratona tem cerca de 42 km?

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Uma medida clássica de distância é o comprimento de uma maratona, que são exatos 42.195 m. Por que não são 42 km? Ou 40 km? Para saber, é preciso ir desde os mitos gregos até a realeza, até chegarmos naquele número que quebra qualquer preciosismo com arredondamentos.

 

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[Corredores nos seus 42 km. Imagem: Tong Su / Unsplash | Reprodução]

 

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MAIS DO QUE O GREGO TERIA CORRIDO

 

A distância que o grego teria corrido seria de 40 km, mas a maratona tem mais de 42 km. A distância, na verdade, é de 42,195 km.

 

Esse grego teria sido o mensageiro Fidípides (conhecido por variantes no nome como Fidípedes ou Pheidippides, a depender de onde se fala). No ano de 490 a.C., ele teria corrido da planície de Maratona até Atenas para avisar que o poderoso exército persa havia sido derrotado pelos soldados gregos. Na lenda, ele chegara ao destino, gritando: "Nenikékamen!" ("vencemos", em grego) e então, morreu.

 

Em 1892, no planejamento dos Jogos Olímpicos Modernos, o Barão de Coupertin viabilizou a ideia e o francês Michel Breal, seu amigo, sugeriu que a lenda de Fidípides fosse homenageada. Essa lenda teria perdurado tanto tempo por conta de um poema do inglês Robert Browning, de 1879, que narrava o acontecido nas Guerras Médicas, cerca de 490 a.C., e que inclui o fim de Fidípides.

 

CONFIRA O POEMA

 

O poema que chamou a atenção de Michel Breal foi:

 

 

Pheidippides

 

 

[Greek: Chairete, nikomen] deg.

 

First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock!

 

Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all!

 

Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise

 

--Ay, with Zeus deg. the Defender, with Her deg. of the aegis and spear! deg.4

 

Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, deg. praised be your peer, deg.5

 

 

Now, henceforth, and forever,--O latest to whom I upraise

 

Hand and heart and voice! For Athens, leave pasture and flock!

 

Present to help, potent to save, Pan deg.--patron I call! deg.8

 

Archons deg. of Athens, topped by the tettix, deg. see, I return! deg.9

 

See, 'tis myself here standing alive, no spectre that speaks! 10

 

Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens and you,

 

"Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid!

 

Persia has come, deg. we are here, where is She?" Your command I obeyed, deg.13

 

Ran and raced: like stubble, some field which a fire runs through,

 

Was the space between city and city: two days, two nights did I burn

 

Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks.

 

 

Into their midst I broke: breath served but for "Persia has come!

 

Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth deg.; deg.18

 

Razed to the ground is Eretria. deg.--but Athens, shall Athens sink, deg.19

 

Drop into dust and die--the flower of Hellas deg. utterly die, deg.20

 

Die with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, the stander-by deg.? deg.21

 

Answer me quick,--what help, what hand do you stretch o'er destruction's brink?

 

How,--when? No care for my limbs!--there's lightning in all and some--

 

Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it birth!"

 

 

O my Athens--Sparta love thee? did Sparta respond?

 

Every face of her leered in a furrow of envy, mistrust,

 

Malice,--each eye of her gave me its glitter of gratified hate!

 

Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. I stood

 

Quivering,--the limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an inch from dry wood:

 

"Persia has come, Athens asks aid, and still they debate? 30

 

Thunder, thou Zeus! Athene, are Spartans a quarry beyond

 

Swing of thy spear? Phoibos deg. and Artemis, deg. clang them 'Ye must'!" deg.32

 

 

No bolt launched from Olumpos deg.! Lo, their answer at last! deg.33

 

"Has Persia come,--does Athens ask aid,--may Sparta befriend?

 

Nowise precipitate judgment--too weighty the issue at stake!

 

Count we no time lost time which lags thro' respect to the Gods!

 

Ponder that precept of old, 'No warfare, whatever the odds

 

In your favour, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable to take

 

Full-circle her state in the sky!' Already she rounds to it fast:

 

Athens must wait, patient as we--who judgment suspend." 40

 

 

Athens,--except for that sparkle,--thy name, I had mouldered to ash!

 

That sent a blaze thro' my blood; off, off and away was I back,

 

--Not one word to waste, one look to lose on the false and the vile!

 

Yet "O Gods of my land!" I cried, as each hillock and plain,

 

Wood and stream, I knew, I named, rushing past them again,

 

"Have ye kept faith, proved mindful of honours we paid you erewhile?

 

Vain was the filleted victim, the fulsome libation! Too rash

 

Love in its choice, paid you so largely service so slack!

 

 

"Oak and olive and bay,--I bid you cease to en-wreathe

 

Brows made bold by your leaf! Fade at the Persian's foot, 50

 

You that, our patrons were pledged, should never adorn a slave!

 

Rather I hail thee, Parnes, deg.--trust to thy wild waste tract! deg.52

 

Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain! What matter if slacked

 

My speed may hardly be, for homage to crag and to cave

 

No deity deigns to drape with verdure?--at least I can breathe,

 

Fear in thee no fraud from the blind, no lie from the mute!"

 

 

Such my cry as, rapid, I ran over Parnes' ridge;

 

Gully and gap I clambered and cleared till, sudden, a bar

 

Jutted, a stoppage of stone against me, blocking the way.

 

Right! for I minded the hollow to traverse, the fissure across: 60

 

"Where I could enter, there I depart by! Night in the fosse?

 

Athens to aid? Tho' the dive were thro' Erebos, deg. thus I obey-- deg.62

 

Out of the day dive, into the day as bravely arise! No bridge

 

Better!"--when--ha! what was it I came on, of wonders that are?

 

 

There, in the cool of a cleft, sat he--majestical Pan!

 

Ivy drooped wanton, kissed his head, moss cushioned his hoof;

 

All the great God was good in the eyes grave-kindly--the curl

 

Carved on the bearded cheek, amused at a mortal's awe

 

As, under the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I saw.

 

"Halt, Pheidippides!"--halt I did, my brain of a whirl: 70

 

"Hither to me! Why pale in my presence?"! he gracious began:

 

"How is it,--Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof?

 

 

"Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no feast!

 

Wherefore? Than I what godship to Athens more helpful of old?

 

Ay, and still, and forever her friend! Test Pan, trust me!

 

Go bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have faith

 

In the temples and tombs! Go, say to Athens, 'The Goat-God saith:

 

When Persia--so much as strews not the soil--Is cast in the sea,

 

Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most and least,

 

Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh, made one cause with the free and the bold!' 80

 

 

"Say Pan saith: 'Let this, foreshowing the place, be the pledge!'"

 

(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear

 

--Fennel,--I grasped it a-tremble with dew--whatever it bode),

 

"While, as for thee..." But enough! He was gone. If I ran hitherto--

 

Be sure that the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, but flew.

 

Parnes to Athens--earth no more, the air was my road;

 

Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the razor's edge!

 

Pan for Athens, Pan for me! I too have a guerdon rare!

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Then spoke Miltiades. deg. "And thee, best runner of Greece, deg.89

 

Whose limbs did duty indeed,--what gift is promised thyself? 90

 

Tell it us straightway,--Athens the mother demands of her son!"

 

Rosily blushed the youth: he paused: but, lifting at length

 

His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the rest of his strength

 

Into the utterance--"Pan spoke thus: 'For what thou hast done

 

Count on a worthy reward! Henceforth be allowed thee release

 

From the racer's toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in pelf!'

 

 

"I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to my mind!

 

Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel may grow,--

 

Pound--Pan helping us--Persia to dust, and, under the deep,

 

Whelm her away forever; and then,--no Athens to save,-- 100

 

Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave,--

 

Hie to my house and home: and, when my children shall creep

 

Close to my knees,--recount how the God was awful yet kind,

 

Promised their sire reward to the full--rewarding him--so!"

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

Unforeseeing one! Yes, he fought on the Marathon day:

 

So, when Persia was dust, all cried "To Akropolis deg.! deg.106

 

Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!

 

'Athens is saved, thank Pan,' go shout!" He flung down his shield,

 

Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the Fennel-field deg. deg.109

 

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through, 110

 

Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine thro' clay,

 

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died--the bliss!

 

 

So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of salute

 

Is still "Rejoice!"--his word which brought rejoicing indeed.

 

So is Pheidippides happy forever,--the noble strong man

 

Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom a god loved so well,

 

He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell

 

Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began,

 

So to end gloriously--once to shout, thereafter be mute:

 

"Athens is saved!"--Pheidippides dies in the shout for his meed. 120

 

 

A PROVA DE LONDRES

 

O Comitê Olímpico informou aos ingleses que a prova de Londres (1908) teria de possuir a distância de vinte e quatro a vinte e seis milhas. São medidas fora do SI, e a conversão de vinte e seis milhas corresponde a 41,8 km. Ajustes no percurso fizeram que a saída fosse dentro do Castelo de Windsor. Isso evitaria que o público atrapalhasse a largada e a deixaria exclusiva da Família Real  que também queria e esteve na chegada da prova.

 

Outro ajuste, conforme a Federação Internacional de Atletismo (IAAF) foi para permitir que as crianças do Hospital Infantil de Windsor pudessem também assistir à largada. No frigir dos ovos, a distância total da prova totalizou 42.195 m.

 

Isso mudou um pouco nas próximas edições das Olimpíadas:

 

• Estocolmo, Suécia (1912): 40,200 km.

• Antuérpia, Bélgica (1920): 42,750 km.

 

Em Paris (1924), a padronização foi por fixar a distância de Londres. Mais tarde, na década de 1990, foi medido o percurso londrino por uma técnica mais moderna, levando a uma medida de 42.036 m (159 m a menos). Mesmo assim, seguiria sendo considerada a medida padrão dos 42.195 m.

  

QUANTO TEMPO LEVA PARA CORRER UMA MARATONA?

 

Até abril de 2026, menos de duas horas pareciam impossíveis. Com um tênis mais leve e tecnológico, treinos musculares – cardiovasculares – até do sistema digestório (intestino), quebrar a marca foi possível. 

 

Existe um relato de que o queniano Eliud Kipchoge teria conseguido em 2019, mas fora de uma prova controlada e que pudesse lhe conferir o recorde. Em 2026, o feito foi do igualmente queniano Sabastian Sawe, com 1:59:30, um minuto a menos de Kelvin Kiptum, de 2:00:35 marcados em 2023.

 

OUTRAS DISTÂNCIAS DE CORRIDAS

 

A medida de uma maratona é muito grande. Não é de um dia para outro que alguém corre toda essa distância, e bem compreensível por que o nosso amigo Fidípides morreu depois da grande notícia. 

 

Outras corridas de menor distância estão se popularizando. Em geral, são feitas distâncias de 5, 10 e 21 km. Existem também as modalidades como o cross country, a trail running e a corrida de montanha, variando entre 4, 8 e 12 km.

 

Pensando nessas medidas, lembremos que a maior corrida do Brasil, a São Silvestre, não é maratona. São 15 km, menos de meia maratona.

 

AINDA FALANDO DE CORRIDA

 

No meio dos corredores, sejam eles de maratona ou não, melhorar o pace é um objetivo. Entenda melhor o que significa 👇🏻, você entende melhor sobre elas:

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E AINDA MAIS PARA VOCÊ:

👉 Corredor: descubra o que é o pace!

 

 

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