PHIDIPPIDES’S RUN
Date: September 5-7, 2014
The race will start from Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens at 17.00 hours (Friday) and will finish at 9.00 hours (Sunday) in front of the statue of Leonidas in Sparta.
Total duration of the race: 40 hours.
Registrations will open on March 15 until June 15, 2014.
Bank account for transfer of registration fees (including the Application Form) and list of hotels in Athens and Sparta for making reservations will be announced by March 15.
Organized by “Marathon Runners Athletic and Cultural Sport Club Telmissos”, “Athletic and Cultural Sport Club Apollon West-Attica”, “Association of Greek Dayrunners”, “Dolicho Sport Club”, “Efklis Runners Club” (and other ultrarunning clubs; to be announced by March 15)
THE GLORIOUS PHIDIPPIDES – PHIDIPPIDES’S RUN (ATHENS –SPARTA 245K)
It’s late one evening, towards summer’s end and the year is 490 BC. The Athenian Day-Runner Phidippides (Philippides) leaves Athens on a mission, the first of its kind given to anyone, ever.
His city-state, Greece, in its entirety, was in danger of subjugation by the oncoming Persian hoards that had already invaded the region and were threatening the freedom of all Greeks and the Athenian people’s young democracy…
He was to deliver Athens’ request to Sparta for the forging of a direct collaboration between the two cities and the contribution of Sparta’s legendary army towards the common goal of arresting the Persian danger…
That evening, many thoughts and images would cross the mind of Phidippides (Philippides), Athens’ best Day –Runner, as he started out from the west entrance of the ‘Holy Way’ (Iera Odos) on his long trip to Sparta… for immortality. His mind would turn to his father and mother, his siblings, relatives, friends and teachers, the Agora, the Stadium, his home, the vines and olives and his Love…
Sometime after exiting the city from the west, he started planning the Route he would be following… Dafni, Eleusis, Megara, (Ancient) Korinth, (Ancient) Kleones, (Ancient) Nemea, Lyrkeia and from there, by way of the passage via Mount Parthenion, onto (Ancient) Tegea, Manthirea and finally to Sparta.
Approximately seven centuries later, the Great Surveyor of Ancient Times, Pausanias, in his 8th book, the Arcadians in 176 AD chose to follow the Prinos passage to go from the Argos to Tegea and after that to Mantinia… thus reflecting the runner’s thoughts.
Phidippides reached Sparta and set forth to return, having accomplished his mission. On the way back, spiritually laden as he was, thirsty, tired, his feet bruised and bloody, he fell asleep on Mount Parthenion. There, he ‘encountered’ the god Pana, ruler of the Arcadian mountain ranges who told him, he would help out, that Phidippides’s city would win and that he would achieve greatness… With peace of mind, he got up, ran down to Tegea and from there to Sparta… Now he knew…
Arriving at dawn of the second day in Sparta after about 40 hours, he had ALREADY carried out his Mission…. A few days later, his City, Athens, and their allies from Plataies together with the invincible phalange of Independent Citizens would defeat the Persian invaders at Marathon…
The remarkable feat of Phidippides (Philippides), was hailed almost 40 years later by Herodotos who recounted in plain but gripping language, the significance of ONE Day-Runner, whose name passed into World History…
Therefore, 25 centuries and more later, all his children, the able followers of his ever-lasting legacy, are called to run on the road marked by Phidippides (Philippides), thereby engaging and committing themselves to their own, individual fight…
ALL long-distance runners are called to feel, to experience, to immerse themselves in his footsteps…
And together become part of the History of the very same places he alone sanctified…
And every year, the first days of September, he will relish reliving these moments in the endeavours of modern day runners from all over the globe who participate in this marathon in his honour and memoriam.
To his QUEST… to follow in his stride, the Road of Phidippides.
Download more details about aid staions, rules and regulations here.
Download the application form here: PHIDIPPIDES’S RUN 2014
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