We heard that the famous marathon will take place this Sunday, 13th november in Athene. The Athens Marathon is like no other on Earth. It’s name is: Athens Marathon the Authentic. According to legend, it covers the same ground that the Athenian messenger Phiedippides ran when he brought news of victory from the battlefield of Marathon 2,500 years ago. When you run the Athens Marathon, you run in the very footsteps of the ancient gods and heros that gave birth to western civilization. The finish line is in Athens’ magnificent Olympic Stadium, the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. They also organize a kids run, 5 km and the 10 km distance. We are not really trained but a 10 km distance would be nice. Why not? Just do it! 😊 The registration is already closed/sold out since October but we’ll try to get a possibility to join. No chance! The only distance we can participate is 5 km. We take what we get. How great is it to run spontaneous some kilometers of the most famous marathon and finish in this amazing Panathenaic stadium (with also about 15 000 athletes). So we score two bib numbers and will run at 8:30 on Sunday morning. We start the day with the intention: Being part of this nostalgic event is more important than the sporty challenge. But Vincent, as a long distance runner for years changes his challenge immediately. It’s so motivating to run even only 5 km with 16300 athletes that we both finished with – for us – pretty good results. Finishing in the old Olympic stadium is amazing, getting our medals and enjoying the atmosphere. We parked the truck next to the old nostalgic and forgotten. Olympic swim arena very close to the stadium, so we take a quick shower and get back to the finish where we watch and celebrate the first whole-marathon-runners coming in after 42km195m in about 2:20:00 hours of running. Great event and very happy to be spontaneous part of it. In the afternoon we drive to Marathonos. It’s the place and battlefield where the history of the Marathon and also of modern democracy began. We visit the run-museum and the official start of the Athens Marathon. Here is also the place where the Olympic flame is getting picked up all four year for the Olympic games.
