Polytechnic Marathon City Stadium in front of the Royal Box, a distance that turned out to be 26 miles, 385 yards. There was immense public interest in the 1908 Olympic race, with its dramatic finish in which Dorando Pietri of Italy entered the stadium well clear of the field and staggered around the last lap to the finish line—only to be disqualified for receiving assistance. Building on this interest, "The Sporting Life" newspaper offered a magnificent trophy for an annual international marathon that would be second in importance only to the Olympic event itself. The Polytechnic Harriers were again asked to organise
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