Marathon Tales

The original Marathon runner Pheidippides finds himself racing alongside long distance athletes from mythology and more recent times. They all have powerful stories to tell.

Marathon Tales was based on many sources including MARATHON WOMAN by Kathrine Switzer and BAREFOOT RUNNER by Paul Rambali

MARATHON TALES brings together an interweaving set of stories about Marathons and runners over the years. Pheidippides charged with covering an immense distance to seek help from the Spartans is aided by the shepherd god Pan, and joined by an extraordinarily varied collection of athletes.

There is Abebe Bikila, the Ethiopian who won the 1960 Marathon in Rome, Atalanta, the formidable mythical figure who ran naked, John Tarrant, the "Ghost Runner" desperate to prove his amateur status and beat the privileged elite, Kathrine Switzer, the American athlete who ran the Boston Marathon when women weren't allowed in long distance competitions, and Grete Waitz the Norwegian Marathon winner who talks as fast as she runs.

MARATHON TALES harnesses the contemporary enthusiasm for competitive sport and Marathons in particular and sets it in an historical but dramatically imaginative context.