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 . The starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of or 26 miles 385 yards to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard distance.