Athens Classic Marathon Athens Classic Marathon The Athens Classic (authentic) Marathon is an annual marathon road race held in Athens, Greece, normally in early November. The race attracted 43,000 competitors in 2015 of which 16,000 were for the 42.195 km course, both numbers being an all-time record for the event. The rest of the runners competed in the concurrent 5 and 10 kilometres road races and the racewalking contest. The marathon course is based on the legend from which the race gained its name: Pheidippides, a messenger in Ancient Greece, ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory
Battle of Athens (1946) Goulden, in his history of immediate post-war America "The Best Years 1945-1950," discussed the Battle of Athens, how it sparked political ex-GI movements in three other Tennessee counties, as well as other boss ruled Southern states, led to a convention with representatives from several Southern states, and how it raised fears that veterans would resort to further violence. The Battle of Athens came at a time, 1944–1946 when there was much concern that returning GIs would be dangerously violent. Those concerns were addressed in an opinion piece by Warden Lawes author of "Twenty Thousand Years at Sing Sing," in a