Epic Athens

It was my third time in Athens and that I had signed up for the marathon, which they call “the authentic” one. Again, a COVID cancellation roll-over from 2020. I signed up because I was desperate for running motivation, and marathon events had always been doing the trick. In 2020 Athens had been one of the first to organise their marathon after the first lockdown. Like everything else, it got then cancelled and my entry transferred to 2021.

It felt so good to be back, yet still nervous about my ongoing inability to run anything longer than 10 miles, despite the marathon comeback I had over the last 10 weeks with Stockholm and Vienna, where I not only completed these marathons but also, most importantly, had fun. All that euphoria was gone though. My day to day running feels inconsistent and non-progressive – I had to cut short my last two “long” run attempts (21k) because I just did not have the strength to continue. A rather disheartening marathon preparation.

Anyhow, here I was back to one of the nicest historic places I know, ready to pick up the race number for the most epic marathons I know. The old Panathenaic Stadium dates back to 330BC, was excavated in 1869 and refurbished as a venue for 1896’s first modern Olympics and is the most amazing finish line I can think of.

Maybe it was out of habit, but I decided to run towards the Marathon Expo for collecting the number, rather than taking public transport. I did the same back in 2017 when my running performance was pretty much at its peak. Google Maps said it’s 6.5k from my apartment, so the plan was to do a gentle jog (99% of my current running are gentle jogs) and then see how I feel, and most likely take public transport back. Only, I did not, but somehow decided to run back, got a bit lost as well and finished a 16k run with tired legs that were calling for a rest day – 18 hours before marathon start!

Great – the price for the biggest idiot goes to… You get it.

I tried to make the best out of it. I had my massage gun with me and massaged my legs that night like my life depended on it. The good thing about stupid stunts like this: you really want to pay attention to your body, you do serious stretching before, keep the focus and, well, hope and pray. So again, I ended up with a bit of inner drama before even getting to the start line. The start itself is great by the way. Organised buses take you as early as 6 am from Athens to the villages of Marathon. You find yourself practically in the middle of nowhere, with thousands of other runners. They do have a little stadium there, which serves as a base to get sorted, warmed-up and ready to go. This year, of course, all with social distancing, face masks and COVID vaccination proof.

And off we went: COVID-adequately organised in two groups, each with countless blocks that started five minutes apart from each other to avoid crowding. Luckily, I was in group 1 and block 2, so not much waiting time for me. I still could feel the 16k run from the day before and wondered, when it will come and bite me. So, I started cautiously, very body-aware and focussed. Well, the route itself does not offer much distraction anyway. It goes along one road, with hills up and down, a little side route to make up for the additional two kilometres, that were added later in Olympic marathon history, until it was chosen as a standard in 1921, based on the London games in 1908. So, the 42.195k distance is NOT authentic.

Just at the end of this little route detour Alex (IG: @alexrun_lesmills) overtook me. It is always quite special when you bump into people you know, but with Alex even so more, because she wears a Polish flag and despite all what she says (“I haven’t run for a year”), she is faster than me, full of energy and documents the running experience on-the-fly on Instagram. In this case, she documented our encounter via live video. Video done, and off she went. Later, I noticed that she was actually live-updating posts on Instagram with pictures of herself and text. The pictures were taken by a fellow runner, the text she must have written somehow while running. And yes, she still claims, she has not done any runs or preparation for this marathon and still finishes in well under 4 hours. I tried not to get too irritated by that and stuck to my own race.

Which rather is hilly. Especially at k30, for 2k. So, I decided to walk that bit, to save energy for what comes next: 10k downhill finish all way through Athens. No point in wasting energy on that 30k hill, from previous experience. So, I finally had this last downhill bit and couldn’t believe that my legs still held up. It was tough, it was hard, but after crossing the 40k marker and running even more downhill, knowing the epic, most awesome Panathenaic stadium of Olympic and marathon history awaits me, I got rather emotional. I suddenly felt so grateful, that despite all the setbacks I can still do this. Now was time for me to get my phone out and document live on Instagram the entry to the stadium and crossing the finish line. I think it gets even better every time I do it! Simply epic.

I spend there as much time as I could, soaking everything up, taking pictures and being happy about my 4:17 time. Which let us suggest there is a little bit of progress since I had my humble marathon comeback that 10 weeks ago in Vienna: it is my best marathon time this year, despite the challenging route and the silliness of running 16k the day before. And it is even 30 seconds faster than in 2012 when I ran it first. Now we are talking progress!

And this calls for celebration! With new friends and old, laughter and shared stories over glasses of wine and finger food, and being blessed by true Greek generosity. Maybe that’s what for me marathons and the running community is all about: all things you can’t buy with money. Same as the medal. Feeling so grateful.