Why every marathon is 26.2 miles — blame the British royal family

The marathon commemorates an ancient Greek legend, but its oddly specific distance was invented barely a century ago — and for a very unheroic reason. When the modern Olympics revived the race in 1896, the distance was a loose ~25 miles, roughly the run from Marathon to Athens. There was nothing sacred about the exact number, and early Olympic marathons varied in length from one Games to the next.

Then came the 1908 London Olympics. Organizers wanted the race to start beneath the windows of Windsor Castle so the royal children could watch, and to finish in front of the royal box inside the stadium. Stretching the course to fit those two royal vantage points pushed the total to 26 miles and 385 yards — exactly 26.2 miles.

That one-off, crowd-pleasing figure stuck. After a few more years of inconsistent distances, the international athletics body simply standardized 26.2 miles in 1921, freezing a British royal convenience into a global rule. Today runners in Tokyo, Boston, and Nairobi all chase a number that exists because Edwardian organizers wanted to please a queen.