Marathon man

At yesterday's session of Literacy Lunches, Grand Forks Central math teacher Steve Paintner read about the origins of marathon. Why? For one, yesterday was the annual running of the Boston Marathon.

The first Marathon occurred in 490 BC when Pheidppides ran from the battled near Marathon to Athens (25 miles) to deliver the news that the Greeks had defeated the Persians in war. After doing so, he collapsed and died on the spot. In 1896 Olympics the Marathon was resurrected in Athens; runners went from the Marathon Bridge to Athens.

The Boston Marathon, held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday in April, is the world's oldest annual marathon and is one of the world's major marathons.

But there's more to Paintner's choice of reading about marathons. Paintner himself is a marathon runner, something he became some seven years ago when he and fellow GFC science teacher Eric Polries ran in a marathon to raise money to honor the late Markus Bryant, for whom the Markus Bryant Spirit Award is named. Bryant was a student at GFC who, despite being ill with cancer, worked hard and persevered, exemplifying courage to all who were around him.  Bryant died in 2002..

Paintner's now in training to run the half marathon, one of the events in the annual Fargo Marathon, an event he's never missed. He's also twice run in the Minneapolis Marathon.