The marathon was always supposed to be ancient. When the event started, at the first modern Olympics in 1896, it was intended as a way of calling on ancient traditions; pointing back to the Ancient Greek origins of the games, and the probably mythical tale of the runner Pheidippides who ran to Athens from Marathon to report on the success of the battle there.
Nobody knows for sure what shoes – or none – Pheidippides was wearing. But his contemporary counterparts’ footwear is so advanced that it would have appeared thoroughly alien to any Ancient Greek, or even the marathon runner of a couple of decades ago.
