How does the battle of Marathon and Pheidippides impact modern day sporting events?

When the Persians landed a force at Marathon to attack Athens, the Athenians sent Pheidippides to ask the Spartans to help them. He ran the 120 miles to Sparta and back and died of exhaustion on his return.

The Athenians were forced to fight the Persian before the Spartans arrived. After they defeated the Persian infantry, they realised that the Persian cavalry's absence was due to it being rowed around the coast to attack Athens in their absence. So the 9,000 Athenian armoured soldiers ran back to Athens and formed up in front of the city just as the Persian cavalry was being disembarked and preparing to gallop up and take the city with traitors opening the gates for them.

So Pheidippides was dead. It was the Athenian army which ran the 26 miles to Athens, not him giving the good news of the battle lf Marathon (which is the fake story peddled today). This run by the Athenian army is celebrated today by the marathon race of 26 miles held during the Olympic Games and elsewhere for distance runners. The difference is that today's brave runners don't carry armour and weapons and wear sandals.