The Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Marathon

Dear Blog,

                Did you see the arrival of the Olympic Flame in Coventry tonight? I do find it a little sad that an opportunity was missed by not giving every leg of the local journey of the Olympic Flame to the citizens of Coventry. Also the crowds, the enthusiasm and the interest was large enough to afford an extension of the route by a mile or so, to offer many ordinary people of the city a once in a life time experience. A mere mile and a half relay is rather pathetic for such an event, perhaps the organisers were surprised at the turn out by Coventry people or was it another cockup like the ticket allocation fiasco?

It did bring back a few memories of my Olympic Marathon. As you know Blog, the word Marathon is now the generic name for the 26 miles 385 yards [42.3 kilometres to you Blog]. This was not always so Blog. You might know my dear Blog that the Olympics came into existence from the enthusiasm of Baron de Coubertin who according to some sources was inspired after a visit to Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England. Much Wenlock had had its own Olympics for years before the first modern Olympics emerged in 1896. Historical sources claim that Baron de Coubertin met with the local Much Wenlock Olympic inspiration Doctor William Penny Brookes and was impressed by the Olympic ideal. NOW. If Baron de Coubertin had not turned to the East and travelled 2500 miles to Greece to stage the first modern Olympic Games, but he, as a young man had gone West for a mere 25 miles he would have ended up across the Welsh border. The first modern Olympic Games might have been stage in Wales instead of Greece! Blog, I kid you not. Instead of Athens, Blaenau Ffestiniog might have become THE Olympic City. And the very first Olympic Marathon, instead of running from Marathon to Athens over the Greek hills might have run from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to Blaenau Ffestiniog over the Welsh hills. As I wrote at the start of my little message to you Blog, Marathon is the generic word for the event; now part of the language and understood by all. In fact it started out life at the first Olympics as ‘The long distance road race from the village of Marathon to the city of Athens’ which was a little tiresome for the newspaper type setters at the newspapers of the time so it became ‘The distance road race from the village of Marathon to the city of Athens’ and then ‘The road race from the village of Marathon to the city of Athens’ followed over time by ‘The race from the village of Marathon to the city of Athens’ and a few years later ‘The race from Marathon to the city of Athens’ and then ‘The race from Marathon to Athens’, and finally ‘The Marathon’; but if Baron de Coubertin as a young man had gone West to Wales instead of East to Greece it might have been a completely different story. In fact it might have started out life at the first Olympics as ‘The long distance road race from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’ which would have been a little tiresome for the newspaper type setters at the newspapers of the time so it would have become ‘The distance road race from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’ and then ‘The road race from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’ followed later by ‘The race from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’ and over time ‘The race from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’ and then ‘The race from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to Blaenau Ffestiniog’, and finally ‘The Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch’. Everyone would now be talking about doing a Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Somehow The Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch doesn’t have the same poetic ring as The Marathon. “What time did you do in the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?”, “what was your finishing position in this year’s Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?”, “How much money are you hoping to raise for charity in this year’s Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?” “What’s your p.b. for the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?” The same would no doubt have applied if Baron De Coubertin had caught a train South for 90 miles and ended up in London. The London Olympics???? No way. The London Marathon, doesn’t sound quite right? Are you doing the London this year? How stupid can you get? No it’s a good thing Baron de Coubertin went on his summer package holiday tour to Greece. One thing for sure Blog, the London thing would never have caught on, whereas I think that the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch  might have just caught the imagination of the joggers with the right amount of publicity and with Dai the red socks Bedford Boyo as race director. What do you think, Blog??

                                                    Colin