Written by Lindley Chambers - http://firemannotsam.blogspot.fr

A lesson Learned the hard way.

On Wednesday the 26th of September myself and sue(my fiance)flew out to Athens in Greece so that I could run in the Spartathlon. The Spartathlon is a historic run celebrating the efforts of Phidippides the Greek messenger who 2501 years ago ran from Athens to Sparta to ask the Spartans to help fight the Persian army at the battle of Marathon. The distance from Athens to Sparta is 246km.
It is said in the historical Chronicles that he left on morning of the first day and arrived by the end of the second day. At this time of year in Greece the days and nights last pretty much 12 hours so this gives us a time of no more than 36 hours that he took for the journey to deliver his message to the Spartans. The irony of the event is that the Spartans turned him down as they were having a religious festival and could not come till that was over and he had to run back!The battle of marathon was still won by the Greeks and the Persians repelled.

You have to kiss this guys foot to finish.

The film 300 refers to a different battle in case you were wondering, nor is there any historical factual reference to him running from marathon and dropping dead. This is likely to be a distortion of the retelling of the story over the years. In 1982 4 brits decided to run the route to see if it was possible. Three of them made it and 1 within the 36 hours and the Spartathlon was born.

The Route.

The route starts at the ancient acropolis and runs through Athens and out along the coast for 50miles then turns inland and over the hills towards the mountains. At almost 100 miles it climbs a mountain of 1200metres in the dark as phiddipides had to go over the mountain to avoid Argos a neutral nation. This is where is said to have spoke to the god pan before he ran the hills back down into Sparta to deliver the message. The modern route takes you through Athens during rush hour morning traffic with all traffic stopped for you and through the modern industrial areas on the edge of Athens before hitting the coast and travels mostly on proper roads except for the mountain trail but is still a beautiful route and as close as possible to the original.

Its not flat!

The race. 

This race has been a dream of mine, due to the history of event and the story  telling of many ultra runners who have said this is the one to do above all others. People like James Adams, Allan Rumbles, Mark Cockbain etc. People I respect as runners who know what they are talking about. This to me is the holy grail of ultra's. We landed in Athens on Wednesday afternoon and were picked up by a bus that had been supplied by the organisers, there were several brits on the flight including Allan Rumbles and Paul Mott and Peter Johnson who I had already met before. The rest of the bus was mostly Japanese or Korean runners, this is a truly international event. Once we arrived at the London hotel we set about trying to organise our registration for the event and arrange our hotel rooms. We had paid  some extra to the organisers to have a separate double room for myself and Sue as they normally bunk 4 runners together. They tried to bunk us with others but after a mild strop by me and evidence by way of the emails I had exchanged with the organisers we had our correct room a small self Catering apartment with a double bed in a hotel across the road and a pool and everything.

The next day we went to the race briefings and I prepared my kit and we met all the other competitors including a couple of Italians who I had met at the Thames Ring 250 race in the UK last year. The GB team consisted of Kevin Marshal, James Adams, Alan Myles, George Eyles, Allan Rumbles, Phil Smith, James Elson, Kevin Shelton-Smith, Peter Johnson, Paul Mott, David Miles, Drew Sheffield, Claire Shelley, Rob Pinnington and someone called Lizzie Hawker! This was an impressive bunch of Ultrarunners from the UK. Over the couple of days before the race we also met the USA team, people such as Oz, Mike Arnstein and Richie who was crewing for them and John Price a bit of a personality in US Ultrarunning. Plus many elite runners from many countries this was clearly going to be an epic race.
On the Friday morning I woke early and dressed in my kit and chucked my stuff on the bus for the other end with Sue and we all went to the acropolis in the dark with it lit up by lights, a truly inspiring place to start the race. We took many team photos and prepared ourselves for an epic challenge that we know only 30% or so statistically complete. A playing of drums and then we were off.

Some of the Brits ready for the off

Traditional music at the start

The first few hundred meters were downhill on cobbles then we hit the main roads, it's amazing that the whole of Athens comes to a standstill with traffic police holding back the rush hour at every junction. Some locals are out clapping and supporting and others are beeping horns and arguing with the police at the hold up but the throng of strangely clad mad 300+ runners from all around the world trail through the city like a large multicoloured snake.
The day is already hot with the temp being about 23 at 7am and about 70% humidity which told us it was going to be a hot one. I plodded of with others chatting at about 9:30ish pace and felt comfy. The route out of the town is not pretty and not flat either its a 1.5-2mile climb out of the town on a coned of lane through some run down areas with stray dogs following you hoping you will throw them some food or maybe drop down dead! The cut offs are very tight in this race with sub 9:30 needed to get you to 50 miles inside the cut off. I was feeling comfy through the first couple of the 75 checkpoints which are about every 5k. It was already hot but I seemed to be coping ok and running just under 10mm as an average which gave me a 1min per mile cushion which was ok but not great. I was doing most of my running at this time with Rob Pinnington another brit who was similar to my pace but leapfrogging other brits on the route.We then went through a really rough industrial area which stunk and was difficult with traffic getting very close and lots of very stinky petrol refineries. then it was out onto the first section of coast road which is where the heat hit me as the day was getting hotter and the reflection of the water and cliffs to the side plus the hot tarmac meant it was getting very hot and this was starting to feel like hard work.

The coast road

I was still inside the cut offs but not by more than 15-20mins at 20 miles in and now the heat combined with the hillier rolling coast road meant I was getting very hot whilst trying to run up the hills and could feel my temperature rising. At each CP I was dousing my hat in a bucket and chucking water over myself but this dried out within minutes of leaving the CP. On one of the uphill sections I felt really hot and ill and chucked up a load of fluids and knew I could not push hard uphill in this heat without chucking up all my fluid and food. I started walking the hills fast as I could but knew I was eating into my buffer I had built up. I hit the marathon distance in 4:45 which was exactly on the cut off so I knew things were tight. I was really hot now and we ran past a garage that had a temp display which said 36degrees which is likely to be in the shade and it certainly felt like 40+ now on the road. We then ran through a small town which gave some respite from the coast heat and was nice to get support from the locals including a bunch of schoolkids who slapped our hands as we ran past. then it was back onto the coast road into the furnace.
I am a heavy runner and my weight was really telling here as I was starting to have to work hard even walking up the hills and running on the flats was getting really hard and generating too much heat which was cooking me and making me feel on the edge of being nauseous and trying to balance eating drinking enough and keeping cool was a struggle. I got to the next CP and saw Drew Sheffield and David Miles had both dropped there and I was a few minutes late but they let me go through. I knew lots of other brits were behind me too. Many runner I consider much tougher and faster than me had been hit with illness associated with the heat. This race takes no prisoners and you cant have a bad patch in the first 50 or afford to not push hard early as there is no cushion in this heat. I was learning the hard way how tough this race is and how fit you need to be to stand any chance. I arrived at the next CP 7 mins late and again they allowed me through and told me that all runner were being allowed 15 mins at CPs to allow for the unusually hot weather. I still had time to keep going. I tried running all the flat stuff and downhills but even that was proving hard in the heat and I was starting to drop time again. I went through the next CP 7mins late and the one after 15 mins late due to a very long uphill that I could not run on. I was on borrowed time now but was still moving ok albeit slowly. I hit CP 14 with 20mins down on the cut off but was waved through and told to hurry, I had no way of speeding up but tried to pick it up on the down hill stuff and caught up a Korean that I had been swopping places with for miles. Another long hill and I struggled and was passed by the Korean and I caught up with a Belgian runner called Lupo and we both stated how hot it was. Ludo had finished last year and this year he was struggling too, we both ran together towards the next CP knowing we were pushing the times but hoping we could sneak through. About 500m from the CP Ludo's crew came up with an organisers car and told us we were done and had lost too much time. It was expected but I was still dissapointed. They offered me a lift to the CP but I walked it in and when I got there there was the death bus with Kevin Marshal on board too and Bridget Brady an Irish runner also dropped. I was forced to hand over my numbers and sign to say I was out and it was done.
I went into a cafe and bought a case of cold cokes and handed them out round the bus and we were transported to the 50 mile point which was the first major cut off to wait till the coaches were full.
It was on the coach and when we got to the 50 mile point that I discovered that we had only 7 brits left in the race with only Lizzie Hawker, James Elson, Richard Webster, Kevin Shelton-Smith, George Eyles, Claire Shelley and of course the running badger James Adams a man who knows how run this race.
I met Sue again here and it was good to see her but I would rather still be running. I had not quit but timed out which made me feel not so bad when I learned how many had been timed out early due to the heat.

We watched James Elson and Richard Webster come through the CP and both looked strong and had plenty of time on the cut off. Then came in James adams who looked like he had been given a kicking on the roadside including a bloodstained shirt from a now rubbed off nipple.

We waited with Gemma and John Price and John Knox for Claire Shelley to come through the CP and she made it with a few mins to spare looking strong and bouncy still and she ate a bit and went off bouncy as always. We were then transported to Sparta to our hotels, there was some confusion about the hotels as we had all been told who was staying where before the race but the plan seemed to have chaged and they tried again to send me and Sue off somewhere else even though we had paid extra to have our own room in Sparta. Cue an epic meltdown by me and we had our correct room again and very nice it was too, right near the finish so we could watch the finisher in the morning. I got a good nights sleep and we got up early and had breakfast and got on the net and twitter etc to try and find out what was happening with our runners, we did not get much info from the race website but hoped all our runners were still going. We got to see Thoms Stu win and come into the finish looking strong.

Sue with the Race winner who was in our hotel

 We then watched Lizzie Hawker come flying in in 3rd overall with a new ladies record by some 38minutes on a day when all other times were slower than normal!

Lizzie finishing strongly

We soon learned that James Elson and Richard Webster had both dropped too and there was no information on any of the other brits apart from James Adams so we though he was the only one left, Claire had also stopped.

James Adams making in 3 out of 3

We sat in a cafe watching the finishers waiting to see James Adams finish and he did not dissapoint, as he came running up the street we all ran with him and it was amazing how fast he could still run. We struggled to stay with him on the road to the statue. 3-0 to James vs Spartathlon.
We learned 3 other brits were still in and soon Kevin Shelton-Smith finished and soon George Elyes too.

Kevin Shelton-Smith

George Eyles

It was amazing to see these guys finish, as we spoke to them at the medical tent after I noticed a runner I recognised on the treatment bed. It was Alan Myles who I had met before at GUCR he was another brit finishing but due to being listed as Irish as he lives in Dublin we had missed him.

Me and Lizzie after the race

The next day we were all coached to the mayor of Sparta house to have a celebratory lunch with traditional food and music and it was a great afternoon with much drinking and dancing by many of the runners, how some of the finishers could still dance I don't know.
We then went back to Athens and the following night there was a huge formal dinner with lots of food and wine where all the finishers got presented with their medals and prizes for the winners.

The British table at the awards dinner

It was a great evening and it was great to get to honor all the runners that had finished and chat to Lizzie Hawker who is just awsome.

Summary

This is a fantastic race and I feel very privileged to have been able to have taken part with so many great runners and meet and spend time with some great people from this sport. I will be back next year fitter, faster and lighter to try again to finish this race. Nothing else matters this is the one to do. James Adams is absolutely right when he says this is the greatest race in the world. I really want to kiss that foot, I would not even go near the statue apart from to take photo's of the finishers I have not earned the right yet.