A Greek runner named Yiannis Kouros holds the world record for distance running: 188 miles (303 kilometers). Kouros actually holds all men’s competition world records of more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) to 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) — completed in one to ten days. A Japanese woman, Tomoe Abe, holds the female world record for ultramarathons — races longer than the standard marathon length of 26.2188 miles (42.195 kilometers). She ran 62 miles (100 kilometers) in 6 hours, 33 minutes and 11 seconds in 2000.
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Mike Morton holds the American record for the longest run in 24 hours: 172 miles (277 km).
The men’s marathon world record is held by Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia. He set his record of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds at the Berlin Marathon in 2008. The women’s record was set by Paula Radcliffe from the United Kingdom at the London Marathon in 2003 — she completed the race in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds.
The first competitive race is thought to have been on Mount Olympus in Ancient Greece in 776 BC — where the Olympic Games first began.