Hmm...the modern marathon has its current distance of 26.2 miles because the race length was shifted a bit at the London Olympics of 1908. The reasons are unclear. However, a college classics teacher of renown taught us that Phidippides ran about 150 miles over the course of three days. Bleeh! Nike.

I ran my first marathon in 1999, and it is no understatement to say that it changed my life. Persevering through the months of grueling training, culminating in a 26.2 mile run taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to. It taught me that I can do the work.

I ran three more marathons before backing off to more sensible distances. Then a couple of years ago, repeated knee injuries and surgeries forced me to hang up my running shoes after 35 years.

But it gave me the courage and the confidence to undertake other difficult things, knowing that with the heart of a marathoner, anything is possible.

Is that San Francisco?

@Don Rodrigo- Too clean to be Frisco. I did not see any human feces being swept up.

I got a car.

Don Rodrigo,

Yes it is certainly San Francisco.

And Terry, it is obviously a cleaned-up television-friendly version of the locale.