What is it about the marathon?

In July 2012 I ran my first marathon. I started my running "career" with the Edinburgh 10K in 2008. I was 44 years old and it was horrible. But inside me some terrible seed had been sown. I knew then I'd run another race. I had no idea what, where or when, but I knew it.
Lets skip by many 5 and 10Ks, 7 or 8 half marathons and a full kilomathon (26.2 K) and move onto the main event.
I decided to enter my first marathon at the end of May after a Twitter conversation with someone who had found himself in a very similar situation to myself. Namely we had both recently discovered the joys of off road running and were pushing up our distance.
I met this man the night before the marathon and we ran it together. The conditions were appalling as most of the summer of 2012 was. We saw very little but we knew we were in the hills of the Lake District and at the end that we had run a marathon! How cool was that feeling? Very very if your in doubt.
I felt a real bond with my new friend (he refers to me as the Scotsman, so I refer to him as the Englishman!). We then ran the Keilder marathon and the Ennerdale 50k in October. So in the space of 4 months we'd our first two marathons and our first Ultra.
In March 2013 I ran the Northumberland Coastal Ultra and then in May the Edinburgh marathon. Very different events indeed, both rewarding in their own ways.
Back to the title of this blog though: what is it about the marathon?
A couple of days ago I ran the Coniston marathon again, one year after my first with the aforementioned Englishman. The weather could not have been different: hot and clear.
It was tough as should be expected. At times I probably wished it were over, but I really enjoyed it. The whole experience. I joined in with two other runners towards the end. One of them started pushing the pace and I was able to go with it, which particularly pleased me.
I came away from this run with an huge feeling of satisfaction, but more pertinently that this is a special distance. I'm glad Ive run a couple of Ultras and probably will run more, and I'll probably run some more 10ks and half marathons. But I'm certain that I'll run more marathons and they'll be off road.
So what is it about about the marathon? Nae idea, but I like it!