The plain of Marathon lies on the Gulf of Euboea. The current community was formed during the administrative reform of 2010 by merging the larger neighbouring community of Nea Makri and the small rural communities of Grammatiko and Varnavas with Marathon. The coastal community of Marathonas lies ten kilometres above the Mediterranean Sea and would perhaps have been forgotten if, according to legend, the battle between 100,000 Persians and 10,000 Greeks had not taken place here in 490 BC. The tradition of the ancient, heroic run and the victory of the Greeks over the Persians is therefore commemorated every year with an official ceremony before the famous long-distance race. Then the sleepy landscape plains with their picture book hills surrounding the Greek community are besieged by buses and cars. Meanwhile, 20,000 runners, among them the international elite of athletes as well as enthusiastic hobby athletes, travel from Athens to Marathon in the early morning hours of Sunday, the day of the competition, to run the reverse route of the original marathon together. A new stadium was even built for this purpose, where the Olympic flame is lit before each marathon run.