I don’t know if I’ll run another marathon, but if i do, I think that it might have to be in Greece: a new thought inspired by this trip. Not the will-I-ever-run-another-marathon part...the -it-might-have-to-be-in-Greece part. Ever since I ran back-to-back NYC marathons in 2004 and 2005, I’ve wondered if I’d do another race at that distance. Immediately after those I knew that my body needed a break. In the winter of 2006-2007 I decided to train for a February marathon on Cape Cod. However, after completing two 18 mile runs along the Charles River I knew that my heart wasn’t in it and decided to run the half instead. I didn’t feel like a failure, I actually was proud of realizing that I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone and I just didn’t feel like running any further. I’d give anything to be in that kind of shape again though. Anyway, for awhile I thought that if I ran another marathon, it would have to be London because I loved that city after spending the summer there in 2000 and I knew one thing about the marathon: it’s flat! As the years have passed and I’ve had the opportunity to visit London a few more times, my marathon thoughts have moved on to the idea of doing the race in a city I’ve never been to before. It would be at the beginning of a vacation so that after the race was over I could spend the rest of the week exploring. It would have to be in a cool, fall-like temperature. You know, the kind of weather where even though you are sweating, you aren’t hot. If you touched your skin it would be almost cold. Love that.
Ok, so now I'm thinking - I have to run this potential marathon in Greece, even though I’ve already been there. Why, you ask? Because the marathon was invented there. I’m embarrassed to say that although I’ve run two marathons, and endured the many months of training that goes into that, I did not know until our visit to Athens the story of the marathon. I never even wondered about it. I’m so happy to know the story of this race now. I think that every person who decides to run a marathon should know it!
We had one day in Athens and we chose to start it with a free walking tour (we also enjoyed one of these in Edinburgh). Our tour guide was an archeologist who was killing time being a tour guide while waiting for more funding towards excavations to appear. Due to the economic climate in Greece, most funding was ceased in 2010 and its been that way ever since. Really sad for people in that line of work but great for us because we had a super knowledgeable tour guide. It was odd to see so many archeological sites throughout the city that were fenced in and essentially looked abandoned.
Ok, so the walking tour: before seeing the remains of the Temple of Zeus, the Library of Hadrian, and the Acropolis, we learned some Greek history, which included the ancient Greeks fighting the Persians. In 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece, one of the battles fought - and one by the Greeks - was the Battle of Marathon. Marathon is a city that is 26.2 miles away from Athens. As the story goes, word needed to get back to Athens fast that the Greeks had defeated the Persians, but who were now sailing for another place from which to launch an attack. So, after the fighting the fight of his life for hours, a Greek soldier ran back to the city to spread this news (and promptly died from exhaustion). The marathon was born. You non-runners are probably thinking - “yeah - this is why I have no interest in running - the guy died at the end!” Ha!
Every November, this is, in a sense, reenacted by the Athens Marathon. It starts on the beach in Marathon, Greece and ends at the Olympic Stadium in the center of Athens (aka The Panathenaic Stadium). I’m talking about THE Olympic Stadium. In ancient times, the stadium on this site was used to host the athletic portion of the Panathenaic Games, in honor of the Goddess Athena. In 329 BC it was rebuilt in marble (having been wood before) and in 140 AD was enlarged and renovated giving it a seating capacity of 50,000. The remnants of the ancient structure were excavated and refurbished for the revival of the Olympic Games which debuted in this very stadium in 1896. The first Olympic marathon ended there and now each November, the Athens Marathon does. I’m sure you feel like a gladiator when you finish. That would be an awesome feeling.
Whether or I’ll actually set out to do this not this is TBD. I’m afraid that my body can’t handle running that much anymore. But being afraid is lame so I might just have to go for it. I know one thing, if I do it, I won’t be disappointed by the post-race meal - the food in Athens was great!
- Jesslyn
