MM#89--The Road to Sparta

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. As you may know, the Olympic Games have started in Beijing, China. And we wish all of our athletes the best of luck, and may you compete well in our successful, most especially, we want to wish our American athletes the best of success. The COVID 19 pandemic. Chinese politics and human rights issues surrounding these games are certainly overshadowing to great degree, the normal Olympic experience for many of our athletes. But that is for a different time and a different day. So with the games started, I thought we would revisit history for a little lesson. This tied tangentially into the Olympics. It's the origin of the marathon. Now for many, they falsely believed that the marathon event was part of the original Greek Olympics. But it was not. It actually came about in 1896, with the Olympic revival movement, more on that to come and a later Mojo minute as well. 

So back to the origin of the marathon. Let's jump back to the year 490 BCE. Let's make our destination Athens, Greece. The Greek city states at that time had surrendered to the Persian army under King Darius the first. And if you remember Plato's famous line of the Greek city states, they were quote, like frogs around a pond, unquote. And that pond or a lake, as the Greeks imagined it was the Mediterranean Sea. Now, the Athenian democracy at the time, was not functioning very well. Socrates wouldn't be born for another 20 years in the year 471 BCE. And so with that, we're going to open it up to today's Mojo Minute Book, for our first quote. In fact, historians have called the Battle of Marathon. One of the most significant events in the, in the course of human history, for the very shape and form of our modern world depended on its outcome. Had the invading Persian forces defeated the Greeks at Marathon, the evolution of Western society would have been an ex girl Billy altered. The impact of this confrontation cannot be overstated. Given that it occurred during the most fragile juncture in the blossoming of contemporary civilization, our very existence hung in the balance, unquote. And that comes to us from Dean Carr annacis.

And a most wonderful book written in 2016, the road to Sparta reliving the ancient battle and epic run that inspired the world's greatest foot race. Now, I have read this book several times, because frankly, it's just that good. And it's on Audible, so you can cheat just like I do, and be sure to give it a spin. Most especially if you like running or marathons or history. You will enjoy it. Dean is an excellent writer, and in fact, he's a pretty good runner to Men's Health magazine tapped him as one of the top 100 fittest men of ALL TIME and TIME magazine added to that a glowing title of the top 100 most influential people in the world. His running feats are that of a superhero. He competed. He has competed on all seven continents, including a 350 mile run 135 mile ultra marathon across Death Valley and a marathon to the south pole of all places. Cheese, the South Pole. Oh, and by the way, it was negative 40 degrees during that marathon crazy. Now the most amazing Seeing running accomplishment for Dean was in 2006. The dude ran 50 marathons in 50 of the States, the United States and get this. He did it in an unthinkable 50 consecutive days. Holy running shoes Batman. I mean, the guy was like a real Forrest Gump.

He finished with the New York City Marathon to which he completed it in three hours. My lord that's a lot of running. So with that brief biography, let's jump back to our history lesson from our book The road to Sparta. Quote, if the Battle of Marathon holds such weight, then it may not be overreaching to consider the feet of a single runner, the greatest athletic achievement of all time. Now check this out. Whereas the great 1990s televangelists Charles Stanley used to say, listen to me. Now listen to me. Quote, indeed, had Fidelity's failed in his conquest, the Battle of Marathon would have most certainly concluded differently, and the history books been utterly rewritten. Few people realize that the footsteps of an Athenian hammer drum most which means day long runner, essentially preserve the fact of modern culture and forever influence the values and way of life. We know today. All of this because of a single runner, and all of this because of a single long distance run. The Battle of Marathon is one of history's earliest recorded military clashes. And the valiant drama of a single lone runner stands in daringly as one of the greatest physical accomplishments ever. Now you may know of this legendary tale of how the first marathon came about, and how it surrounds the Battle of Marathon. So with anecdotal bits here and there, it's most famously retold this way. The time is 490 BCE. Like we said earlier, the Persian Empire is on the march haven't conquered all the Greek city states but to Athens and Sparta, which happened to be the biggest. The large Persian army with hundreds of ships has just landed at Coastal marathon, Psalm 25 miles outside Athens, and the badly out number Greeks somehow managed to push the Persians back, and the Athenian generals dispatch, a messenger to run from the battlefield to Athens to deliver the great news of the Greek victory. Now, legend says, After running the 20.62 miles to the Acropolis, FIPPA DS, burst into the chamber and gallantly hailed his countrymen with quote Nike, Nike, meaning victory victory. Amongst the great celebration for deputies promptly collapsed from exhaustion and died. 

Now Parnassus says, quote, it is an endearing story of perseverance and human triumph that serves to make every runner proud. Turns out however, the story is bigger than that, much bigger. The real story is this, from the large military encampment and camp meant at Marathon, the Persians would have some 50,000 men that landed on that coastline. Then they would march to conquer the Greek city state, capital, Athens. Now, the Athenian army had 10,000 men, so obviously, they're badly outnumbered. So the they dispatched the hermit draw most, which is the day long runner, and his job is to run from Athens to Sparta, not from the battlefield to Athens, to announce the victory, but from Athens to Sparta to request Spartan help and holding off the Persians. 

Now, you may know the Spartan city state were some tough dudes, I mean, these guys trained all day every day. They were like modern day Navy SEALs are our special operations guys, except, like two times stronger but from the time the Spartan males were born and taken from their families, at age seven, they were training for war and combat. So Okay, super. If we are the Athenians, we will call in the Spartans for reinforcements. Great, no problem. Now, back in the day, they didn't have FedEx or UPS overnight. They had these day long runners. And it was in fact, the most efficient way to get messages from one part of the country to the other, or from one state to the other. Now, you may think, why not a horse and a writer, like they didn't have horses or riders back then? Well, I thought about that too. 

But it turns out the landscape in Greece and in this part of Greece is very mountainous. So Horace would actually slow you down and trying to deliver the message. So what's the distance from Athens to Sparta? Well, just take a guess how far 25 Miles right now 50 miles? Nope. 100 miles? Nope. 125 miles. Again, know the distance was a whopping 140 miles. Holy smokes 140 miles. You got it. So our hero for deputies ran some 140 miles from Athens to Sparta in about 36 hours, leaving at sunrise and arriving by the end of the next day. So says Heraclitus, which is where these details come from. While he ran with his SOS slash help message to the Spartans. The Athenians debated their options for those Persians that had just landed on Greek soil. And as a side note, check out the book for more details on how current assets discover the true origin story of how the marathon came about. Most especially Harada. This is writings of the histories, and a certain British Royal Air Force Wing Commander named John Foden. The commander actually vindicates Heraclitus, and he inspires Dean Karnazes, who actually runs the same path that our Athenian hero slash runner did. Thus, the title of this book is the road to Sparta in case you haven't guessed that yet. It's a very, very inspirational read. I recommend it for anyone who loves running, like I said, and history for that matter. So back to our hero fit deputies in 491 BCE. So he delivers the important news requesting the Spartans assistance after just having run some 140 miles. 

And you won't believe this. The Spartans respond. They couldn't quite go just yet. They were in the middle of a religious ceremony, and wouldn't be able to help until it was a full moon. Are you kidding me? I mean, come on. So then current assets tells us our running hero for deputies takes a little break, and runs back to Athens to share that important news to the Athenians. So in sharing that important and pivotal pivotal news, he did in fact, help the Athenian generals make changes to their strategy, and ultimately, Athens defeats the Persians at Marathon. Yay, Western civilization has saved her Re. And so our hero just didn't run a marathon. He just didn't run 26.2 miles. He actually ran and current assets emphasizes this in the book. He ran a ultra marathon. He ran six marathons. Then he took a break, and then ran another six marathons in terms of distance back close to some 300 miles, roughly in about 70 hours. Wow, that is a lot of running Forrest Gump. 

So in today's Mojo minute when you think you are at your limit of your potential when you think you're at your breaking point.
Think of our hero for deputies in that first marathon that wasn't a mere 26.2 miles. But it was six marathons put together. And think of his epic journey over those Greek mountains. To deliver that crucial news to say Western civilization, and you, perhaps, just perhaps, you will be inspired to challenge your own limits that you put on yourself. Now we're all guilty of limiting ourselves. We put those false limits on ourselves about what's possible about what's the human beings greatest physical potential, say over the next day and the next week and the next month next year. Let's challenge ourselves. Let's challenge ourselves to get a little uncomfortable with ourselves. And when we're on that personal road, you know that personal road to Sparta? Let us run with the limits of festivities.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on