White City, London paving outside the building. The Marathon from these London Olympics played an important part in the development of the modern marathon race. In the early years of competitive international sport, the long distance marathon race did not have a standard set distance. The distance run at the first seven Olympics from 1896 to 1920 varied between 40km and 42.75 km. The starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard
Quarter marathon Quarter marathon Quarter marathon (QM) refers to either an exact race of a quarter of a marathon, or running for 10–15 kilometers (approx. 6.5–9 miles) without a rest. The former is held in many places around the world. Sisaket, a north-eastern province in Thailand, holds quarter marathons on the third Sunday of December every year. Bushey, a town in East England also holds quarter marathons every July. The Congleton Quarter Marathon was set up by the Congleton Lions; it afforded participants the opportunity to run alongside the half marathon runners. The Congleton Lions decided to stop organising the race in