Pheidippides ran from Athens all the way to Sparter.

A marathon is 26 miles.

Nike means "we won".

King Darius wanted to take over the whole of Greece.So he did.The Athenians were not happy about this.So the Athenians decided to send Pheidippides to Sparta to ask them if they could fight the Persians. But they couldn't because they were having a festival.So Pheidippides ran back to Athens. Meanwhile the Athenians thought they had to fight the Persians on their own. So instead of attacking from the front they came from the sides and pushed the Persians off the cliff. After the battle Pheidippides came back but the Athenians told him that they had won the battle and told him to go back to Sparta and tell them that they had won. So he did, but by the time he got there he was so exhausted he could only say "Nike" and then died.