Songs About Sports - "Marathon"

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Just two ditties left in this little series of Songs About Sports, and we’ve been all over the place, sports-wise. We’ve covered both team and individual sports, and today the individual sports keep it going with a tribute to one of the original tests of man’s endurance: “Marathon” by Rush. Marathons, of course, are long-distance footraces, 26.22 miles (42.195 kilometers) in length. They are held all over the world (seemingly every city of any size has a yearly marathon,) and some are quite famous: New York City, Boston, London. People come from all over to enter, some competing to win, some hoping to qualify for a bigger marathon, some just hoping for the best time possible. Some people even have a “marathon bucket list” and enter various races just to check them off the list. Canadian rock trio Rush tapped into the marathon craze on their 1985 album, Power Windows, with the tune “Marathon.” Oddly-enough, while “Marathon” both conveys the mental toughness needed to compete in such an event, as well as serving as a metaphor for life itself, lyricist Neil Peart was inspired to write the tune after getting into cycling - often disappearing on tour days-off on his bike for hours while he rode a hundred miles. Photo is one I took at the start of the 2013 Pikes Peak Marathon. Link is to the album version of “Marathon:”