Current research indicates that too much running is not good for you and that the risk of dying of coronary disease is the same for a long-distance runner as it is for a sedentary person ("Don't run for your life," Variety, April 7). It's strange that this growing interest in running 26 miles, 385 yards, is based upon the run from the plains of Marathon to Athens, by Pheidippides, to announce the Greeks' victory against the Persians in 490 B.C., inasmuch as he delivered the message, fell over, and died.

Norman Holen, Richfield