Marathon poem, his composite story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend. Mount Pentelicus stands between Marathon and Athens, which means that if Philippides actually made his famous run after the battle, he had to run around the mountain, either to the north or to the south. The latter and more obvious route matches almost exactly the modern Marathon-Athens highway, which follows the lay of the land southwards from Marathon Bay and along the coast, then takes a gentle but protracted climb westwards towards the eastern approach to Athens, between the foothills of
Marathon later recognized by the race organizers as the women's winner for that year, as well as 1967 and 1968. The length of an Olympic marathon was not precisely fixed at first, but the marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were about , roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. The exact length depended on the route established for each venue. The International Olympic Committee agreed in 1907 that the distance for the 1908 London Olympic marathon would be about 25 miles or 40 kilometres. The organisers decided on a course of 26 miles