Time On Your Feet: The Athens Marathon, 10.11.2019

The Athens Marathon, known as the Authentic Marathon, has been on my wish list since I was little. This is a while ago, but to explain why this is, we must go even further back into the mists of time....

In 490 BC the Athenian Army defeated the Persian invaders at Marathon Town (a town on the coast, north of Athens). The Greek messenger Pheidippides, ran the 26 miles to Athens, to announce victory, and then collapsed, and died from exhaustion.

Well, that's how the popular story of the origins of The Marathon goes, but it's probably not true. The route from Marathon to Athens was smooth even then, so a messenger would have taken a horse, which was much a faster and preferable mode of transport. It is recorded that there was a messenger named Pheidippides, but he probably was used to relay messages along routes too treacherous for horses, like over the mountainous terrain from Athens to Sparta, which is around 280 miles.

What is more likely, is that after the Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon, the whole army had to march back quickly to Athens, which was already under threat from another Persian invasion, from the sea. So thousands of soldiers would have marched the route, headed from one battle, straight to another.

But the Pheidippides story has stuck, as being the point from which The Marathon was born. Which is lucky really, otherwise a marathon would be 280 miles. Thank goodness. Anyway, I am easily enthralled by a good story, and I have always been fascinated by this one, as this is what the marathon route of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 is based on. So going there to run the Authentic Marathon was like a dream for someone who loves a marathon!

I went with some friends from work, Joe, Sumaiya, and Alex. The whole weekend was tonnes of fun, and felt like a proper mini holiday, with sun, sightseeing, nice Greek food, and of course, the running. The marathon weekend is a really big deal in Athens, and it's a really great atmosphere, and it felt like the whole city was in the spirit for the weekend.

I hadn't really appreciated how big an event it was, until we made it to the Expo on Saturday to pick up our numbers and bags. It was enormous and absolutely packed. As well as the marathon there are 5km and 10km and also other races, like kids races, over the weekend, so there are thousands of people taking part, about 19,000 doing the marathon alone.

It was quite overwhelming and after a couple of hours we were pretty knackered. Afterwards, of course, we had to recover with a Greek lunch and some sightseeing.

Athens is so beautiful and there are so many things to see, that after this, we needed to recover again, with carb loading in the evening, and sangria (for hydration, and relaxation). When we arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning, the bed in Sumaiya's room had been soaking wet, due to a leak, so the manager had given us a free meal and drinks in the rooftop bar (as well as fixing the wet bed, of course).

I didn't sleep very well on Saturday, the traffic was noisy, I was worried about missing my alarm, and it seemed like other people in the hotel were up and down all night. But I wasn't bothered, I was too excited for race day to be annoyed by it.

The hotel started breakfast from 04:30 on Saturday morning for the runners, which was a nice touch. We grabbed some toast and ate it walking to the pick up point for the coaches (we went to Omonoia, but there were pick up points organised all over the city). Already there were hundreds of runners walking around, and the queue for the coaches was snaking down the street. There was a constant steam of coaches, so the wait wasn't long. I think the marathon is very well organised, as well as very good value. It's about €35 for the race and transport from Athens to the start at Marathon (as it's a point to point race) which is quite a long journey, I thought, as we sat chatting on the bus. Really quite long indeed. And we have to run all the way back.....

We eventually made it to Marathon and hopped off the coach, to see a sea of runners as far as you could see. That's a lot of seeing to do, but there really was so much to take in. The start was in the athletics stadium. Artistically, port-a-loos were placed the whole way around the edge, there were hundreds. They were pretty gross, but I've never met one the isn't (apart from a single one on the Hadrian Hundred, that was immaculately clean, and decorated with fairy lights, but on reflection, I'd run 70 miles by that point, so it was probably an hallucination). Anyway, this is a race report, I mustn't get distracted by port-a-loos. Will save that for another time (you can look forward to that).

Anyway, port-a-loos braved, it was time for our "before" picture. Joe and Sumaiya were running their first marathons, and Alex was unbelievably running despite a really bad knee injury, so was all taped and compressed up. I was so proud of everyone for making it to the start.

The Marathon Flame was burning bright at the start....and soon it was time to get into our blocks. I was in block number 6, the blue block. I was wearing blue, so was happy to be coordinated. Waiting, we put our rights hands up whilst the Runners Oath was read out. Then, as each block started, and we slowly crept towards the start line, the rain poured, really poured, for about 2 minutes, then stopped again. It did this a few more times during the race, which turned out to be quite fortunate, as it was pretty hot.

The marathon is a road marathon, so goes along a road, all the way from the start to the finish, with a small loop around the Tomb or Marathon (the memorial to the Battle of Marathon). I've heard people, a lot of people, say the Athens Marathon is really boring because it's just along a road. I disagree completely! There is plenty to see, the mountains, the sea, olive trees, towns, houses, the Greek outdoors. Plus, aren't all road marathons along roads? And, even if the route was boring, which I don't think it is, the atmosphere is completely fantastic. There's not long between places where loads of locals were out cheering and smiling, constant shouts of "Bravo!" musical in the air, giving olive branches to runners, handing out olives, and kids high-fiving-ing. The locals were really so welcoming. I high-fived a lady and she clasped hold of my hand, wishing me luck. So lovely! There were music stations, rock bands, steel drums along the route. The best was about 11km before the end, going through a road tunnel and a steel drum band were playing in the tunnel, the beats echoing around. It was spine tingling stuff!

The water and aid stations were plentiful and well stocked with water, isotonic drinks, coke, bananas, cereal bars, bitter chocolate and salty biscuits.

The only thing I didn't like so much was that there were quite a lot of aggressive men runners who would pretty much push you out of the way to get past. This happens at all big events, and maybe it's just because I haven't done a big marathon for a really long time and had forgotten about it as the ones I tend to do are smaller, where everyone is very kind to each other, but it felt like it happened a lot. I really can't stand it when people behave like they're more important than other people. Like, we're all here running the marathon mate, you can't just push someone because they happen to be in your straight line, ever heard of running around people? But, like port-a-loos, a few arrogant people are part of the game, and like port-a-loos, after a short rant about it, you feel better, and their insignificance in the grander scheme of life becomes apparent.

The marathon was fairly hilly, and from looking a the course profile...

....I was prepared for 20-30 km being tough. I didn't really think it felt that bad, although my spilt times for that section were a bit slower, so I guess it must have been. I think I was really just enjoying it, being in a big race, and enjoying the atmosphere. I was surprised at how many supporters there were along the whole course, I'd thought it would just have been towards the end, near to Athens, but the whole way was like a party.

The end, running down an orange tree lined street, with crowds lining the pavements, and turning the corner into the Panathenaic Stadium, is something that I will remember forever! I don't normally get emotional at the end of Marathons, but I was a bit overwhelmed by this one! The noise, the sight of the stadium rising up, being on the track where so many have achieved legendary status, was pretty special. All around me as I finished, people were holding hands and crossing the finish line with their hands in the air. A random man held his hand up at me, and being from the UK, and used to high-fiving people when seeing a hand in the air, I did that, but he looked at me like I was a complete weirdo, and then I got what he meant. So I crossed the line hand in hand with a stranger, which normally would be a bit weird, but that's what seemed to be completely normal for that moment, and it was pretty special. I did 4.09 which is my fastest in a long time. I haven't run much lately, nothing long anyway, and didn't really have any expectation about what I would be able to do, so am pretty satisfied with that. It wasn't about the time though, I could have done any time at all, because it didn't matter.

I think being at the end was just as good as the run. I spent a few hours in the stadium, sitting on the warm marble steps (it's the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble), soaking in the atmosphere, tracking the people I knew on the marathon app (I got really addicted to it, it gave alerts every 5km, but seemed to be tracking distance in between too, so you could follow runner along on the map). There has been a stadium on the site of the Panathenaic Stadium since 330 BC, and it was refurbished for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. A Greek athlete, Spyros Louis ran the route from Marathon Town to the the Panathenaic Stadium, and won the first marathon gold medal of the modern Olympic Games, and became a legend..... As I sat and watched people finish, I thought, I never want to leave, it's such a special place! The atmosphere, music, commentary, seeing runners and their supporters reactions as they crossed the finish line, is such a privilege to witness.