2012 Olympic Marathon Course standard length for a marathon, and the 1908 marathon course was originally to have been 25 miles, passing through Uxbridge, Ruislip, Harrow-on-the-Hill before ending at the White City Stadium. It was extended to 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 km) to avoid troublesome cobbles and tram lines, because of access restrictions at Windsor Castle and to improve visibility to the spectators, including Queen Alexandra, for the finishing stretch inside the stadium. This distance subsequently became the official length of the marathon. In 1948, London hosted the first Olympic Games to be held after World War II the "austerity games". The
Slow marathon Mihret Kebede created the project as part of a residency with Deveron Arts (now Deveron Projects). The artist had wanted to walk the 5850 miles from Ethiopia to Scotland, but this was not possible because of physical difficulties such as crossing deserts as well as closed borders and visa restrictions. Kebede calculated that if 225 people each walked 26 miles together they would have travelled the distance between Ethiopia and Scotland; in response she developed an accumulative marathon, which involved a 26-mile walk in and around the town of Huntly, and a parallel walk in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The inaugural