Hi All, I know lots of people run Marathons these days and it is a great test of endurance, training and spirit. How much of our acceptance and desire to compete in this most arduous task comes from the great name “Marathon” and the romance and legend that goes along with it. How many people would run 26 miles if it were called the “Writtle”. I’ll explain what I mean. This week is the anniversary of Pheidippides run from Marathon to Athens to tell of the Greek victory in battle, after imparting the information he died of his exertions. There are a few problems with this story and the adoption of the word Marathon, firstly the length of the marathon is now fixed at 42.195 kilometres an arbitrarily chosen distance which doesn’t equate to either of the 2 possible routes Pheidippdes may have taken. Participants are not required to die immediately after completion of the event, distancing the name further from actual events. Still, it’s a cool name. If the battle had occurred in Britain and the run happened, for example, from Writtle, which is about 26 miles from London, to London, would the name Writtle still be used after so many other things were changed?

It’s really all about branding isn’t it? We have about 70 items dealing with branding in the Ipswich campus library alone, it would be a marathon effort to read all of those, or even a writtle effort. Marcos