means A long-distance running race of 26.2 miles, or by extension any endurance event or prolonged session of any activity.

from Named for the Greek town of Marathon, site of the 490 BCE battle in which Athenians defeated the Persians. The popular legend says the messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory, gasped the news, and dropped dead — and that story inspired the modern race, invented for the first Olympics in 1896. The historical accounts are messier and the death is likely embellishment, but the name stuck. The town's own name may derive from 'marathon,' the Greek word for fennel, which grew on the plain.