Mbio ya Marathoni ni mbio ya masafa marefu kuliko zote, ikichukua kilometa 42.195. Ndiyo kilele cha michezo ya Olimpiki. Asili ya mchezo huo ni mbio ya urefu huohuo iliyopigwa na Fidipide mwaka 490 KK ili kuwatangazia wananchi wa Athens (Ugiriki) kwamba wamewashinda Waajemi katika mapigano ya Marathon. Siku hizi wanariadha bora, hasa wa Kenya na Ethiopia, wanafaulu kukimbia umbali huo wote kwa saa 2 na dakika chache tu. Hans-Joachim Gehrke, "From Athenian identity to European ethnicity: The cultural biography of the myth of Marathon," in Ton Derks, Nico Roymans (ed.), Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2009) (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, 13), 85–100. Hans W. Giessen: Mythos Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart. (= Landauer Schriften zur Kommunikations- und Kulturwissenschaft. Band 17). Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, Landau 2010 Tom Derderian, Boston Marathon: History of the World's Premier Running Event, Human Kinetics, 1994, 1996