But when did running actually become a thing? Steph Davis, Olympian and coach for running app Runna<\/a><\/strong>, investigates.<\/p>\n If we look back in history to when running first started, there isn\u2019t a concrete date or a named person who was the first runner.<\/p>\n However, there are lots of fascinating milestones that have developed running into the sport it is today.<\/p>\n In the Old Stone Age, humans were running for survival. We ran to escape predators, hunt animals and move from A to B.<\/p>\n There was a need<\/em> to run. It wasn\u2019t always a choice or something to do for fun. It was a survival instinct.<\/p>\n Running officially became a competitive sport in Olympia in Ancient Greece, where the first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC.<\/p>\n The one and only running race was a short sprint, with the marathon distance arriving a lot later.<\/p>\n In 490 BC the first unofficial \u2018marathon\u2019 took place \u2013 the legendary run of Pheidippides.<\/p>\n It\u2019s believed that a Greek soldier ran approximately 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of a military victory against the Persians.<\/p>\n However, it wasn\u2019t until the early 20th century that the marathon distance was formally standardised as 26.2 miles by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), now known as World Athletics.<\/p>\n In the 19th Century, competitive running and running races were happening in Europe with the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.<\/p>\n Running was only done in order to compete, and women\u2019s racing was still very limited.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until 1926 when women began to run the marathon, and even then, they were not officially recognised as part of the race!<\/p>\n Violet Piercy was one of the first women to run a marathon and challenged the notion that women were too fragile to run.<\/p>\n Running or jogging as we know it today, a form of exercise to keep fit or socialise, didn\u2019t really begin until the 1960s.<\/p>\n Arthur Lydiard, a well renowned running coach from New Zealand and an advocate of running for better health, started the world\u2019s first jogging club in Auckland.<\/p>\n Its popularity grew when Bill Bowerman, an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, ended up going for a jog with Arthur Lydiard while on a running trip in New Zealand.<\/p>\n On Bill\u2019s return to the US, he introduced jogging at the University of Oregon. This expanded to the masses when he wrote a book called Jogging<\/em> in 1966.<\/p>\n While jogging was becoming more popular, women were still fighting a battle to run competitively.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until 1984, 88 years after the first modern Olympic Games, that the women\u2019s marathon was officially included in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n This was a huge milestone in female running. America\u2019s Joan Benoit won the first Olympic women\u2019s marathon.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Running has become one of the most accessible sports, with can big events like the Abbot World Marathon majors (started in 2006) or our local ParkRun (the first ever ParkRun was in Bushy Park, London, in 2004) emerging.<\/p>\n From an elite perspective we have seen and continue to see incredible running performances.<\/p>\n In 2001 pacemakers (\u2018rabbis\u2019) were introduced to help professional runners chase faster times, qualification standards or world records.<\/p>\n Pacemakers were a key part of the Breaking2 project, which saw Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge run the first-ever sub-two-hour marathon in 2019.<\/p>\n That same year, we also saw Paula Radcliffe\u2019s long standing marathon world record broken by Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, who ran 2:14 at the Chicago Marathon.<\/p>\n Technology now plays a huge role in our running, from training plans, our kit, sport watches<\/a><\/strong> and being able to analyse physiological and biomechanical data to improve our running ability and efficiency.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an exciting time to see where the sport will go next!<\/p>\n Looking for some help with your run training?\u00a0Sign up to Runna<\/a>\u00a0and you can access personalised training plans from the likes of Steph Davis and pro triathlete\u00a0Beth Potter<\/a>. Plus, sign up via\u00a0this link<\/a> or use code 220T and you can get a two-week free trial.<\/strong><\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Pexels<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Is running a tale as old as time? Pretty much. Here’s Olympian and running coach Steph Davis with a brief history of running… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23994,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/07\/when-was-running-invented.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Is running a tale as old as time? Pretty much. Here's Olympian and running coach Steph Davis with a brief history of running...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/23993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When did running start? The early days<\/strong><\/h2>\n
When did running become a sport?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Image\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/ancient-greece-running-image-9cd951c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C371"\" "\\"\"Men\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>When did women start competing in races?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
When did running become a popular sport?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The evolution of running in the 21st century<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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