Today
RAF Expedition - John Foden
Oct 8, 1982
Athens, Greece
Oct 9, 1982
Sparta, Greece
On October 8, 1982, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers followed in Pheidippides’ Footsteps. The traditional story tells that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC) was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran 246 km (152 mi) in 36 hours. He then ran 40 km (25 mi) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (“We have won”), to then collapse and die, probably from exhaustion and dehydration and lack of fuel. To...


