Mike from California requested the Chinese translation for “marathon” as in “the difference between the mile and a marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals”…  Hal Higdon, author / runner…  shoot, don’t think I’m ambitious enough to try either…  lol.

In this case, it is actually a “transliteration” rather than a “translation”…  which means that the Mandarin Chinese characters here are used for their close approximation in sound to the English word, rather than for their actual meanings.

Having said that, while the individual character meanings have no relation to the word “marathon” itself, I’m gonna provide them here for completeness sake…  the first character means “horse,” the second character means “to pull,” and the third character means “pines” or “firs.”

Want to see these characters embroidered on a women’s or unisex t-shirt?  Or on a women’s or unisex tank top?  Click the appropriate preceding link.  Got a translation request of your own?  Contact me!