The race of their lives

Fighting flab turns health conscious into torch bearers for an activity that is not for the weak of mind

In the life of a mathematician the number 3.14159 is as second nature as bread and butter or rice and chopsticks are to the rest of us. For another group of people the number 42.195 assumes an importance that in many cases will become an obsession and perhaps even a life-long passion.

And just like 3.14159, expressed in the Greek letter pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, 42.195 has strong Greek connections, reflecting the distance in kilometers that a messenger is said to have run between the towns of Marathon and Athens 2,500 or so years ago.