Athens Marathon 2010 – 2500th Anniversary

  By: CAPT Andrew Whittaker

In 490BC, the soldier Phidepiddies made the historic run from Marathonas to Athens to declare a very short message.  It was one word, which was in effect “we have prevailed”.  The pronouncement was of the victory of the Athenian defenders over the vastly larger Persian invaders.  Legend has it he then dropped dead.

On 31^st October, some 12,500 registered starters sought to follow in the footsteps of Phidepiddies, but without such a drastic ending.  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to participate in the run to mark 2500 years since that first Marathon.

My wife and I arrived in Athens some 5 days before the run and I was able to get in some training runs around the Acropolis.  Even these training runs were great fun.  I’d have an American voice call out to me “what’s your goal time?” or I’d stop on a hillside to admire the view to the Acropolis and there was another Aussie runner (and we were eventually joined by another).  As luck would have it, an Australian running tour group was staying in our hotel, as well as lots of other nationalities.

The race started at Marathonas at 9am, but the last of the runners transport left Athens at 6:30am for the 45 minute bus ride.  The organization was excellent and everyone got to where they needed to be.  A real party atmosphere existed in the warm up stadium and the starting blocks.  I lost count of the number of different nationalities I spoke to.  Everyone was just so friendly and the announcer was keeping us entertained; particularly with his ever more strident calls for runners to get their kit on the baggage trucks: “You must take your stuff to the trucks NOW!”  Normally before a marathon, runners are extremely focused and there isn’t a lot of talk.  This was just so different; and when they played Zorba the Greek just before the start, some of the locals broke into dancing while everyone else joined in with clapping.

The start was a staggered one with the elites and championship runners in the first group.  I was in Group B, which started 2 minutes later.

This was not an easy course; it was quite warm with not a breath of breeze, the route itself was less than inspiring visually and there was a long gradual climb 18 to 32 km.  On the up side, the last 10km was mostly down hill, and the people in the villages and towns we ran through were fantastic.  The place echoed to cries of “Bravo!” and “thank you for coming”.  In one of the outer suburbs speakers were playing Jerusalem and as I passed by, it changed to Chariots of Fire.  That became a bit of inspiration as I was hurting and had had to stop 3 times to stretch my calves.

The race finished at the stadium where the first of the Modern Olympics was held in 1896.  For me that was 3hr 22min and 57sec after the start and an overall finish of 617^th.  While that might have been the finish of the race, it certainly wasn’t the end of the experience.  Runners were clearly identifiable after the race in their blue souvenir t-shirt and it was normal to ask other people in the hotel how they were recovering and how they enjoyed the experience.

The following morning we had breakfast with another Aussie and two Swedes (one of whom ran a 2:55 and has run the Berlin Marathon so many times (10) that they gave him his own bib number for life!).

While this was far from my best time, I was reasonably satisfied considering my long term knee injuries over the last 2 years which resulted in me being quite under-done.  However, this wasn’t about running a PB.  It was about participating in the 2500^th Anniversary of the Marathon and experiencing the atmosphere and camaraderie, which was unlike anything I’d known before.

My thanks to Navy Running which paid the entry fee.