I survived Marathonas to Athens, Pheidippides didn't!!!

The Athens Marathon. The Authentic course.

30 - Athens Marathon the Authentic, Athens, Greece, 12 November 2017.

At the beginning of 2014, if you had asked me about the Athens Marathon, I would have looked at you and answered the question with another question; am I expected to know that and why? Like many people (some runners included), I knew that in the running circles, there was track and road running, and all road running was marathon running. This is all I knew and needed to know. The thought of running the Comrades Marathon had crossed my mind by then, and I was confident I would one day. However, the running bug had not really gripped me to the extent of researching on all these nitty-gritties of running. A marathon was a marathon regardless of the distance. Five, 10, 21, 42 or 90 kilometers, were all marathons. So, why would I be expected to know anything about the Athens Marathon?

It was only sometime in November 2014 while I was preparing for my maiden marathon, the Soweto Marathon, that I got to understand that five, 10, 21, 56 or 90 kilometers were not marathons. A marathon is exactly 42,195 kilometers long. Anything less or more than that, has and must have a prefix. If it is less, it is a quarter, half or whatever marathon. If it is one meter longer than 42,195 kilometers, it is an ultra-marathon.

Interested in the Battle of Marathon? This is the 

book to read..

The story of the marathon is legendary. Legend has it that the first ever marathon was run in Greece around 490 B.C. The chap that ran it, ran for about 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) to Athens to deliver a message that the Athenian army had defeated the Persians. He is believed to have shouted “Nike! Nike! Nenikekiam” (“Victory! Victory! Rejoice, we conquer!”), collapsed and died. His name was Pheidippides (aka Philippides). This was the original marathon distance at the first modern-day Olympic games in 1896. The distance was later increased in 1908 when the Olympics were hosted in London. It is believed that Her Majesty, Queen Alexandra wanted the race to start on the lawns of Windsor Castle and end in front of the Royal Box at the Olympic Stadium. This resulted in the distance being increased to 26 miles and 385 yards. This distance was standardized in 1921 and the total distance for a modern-day marathon became 42.195 kilometers. The next time you hear of a person going for a five, 10, 20 or 30-kilometer marathon, be kind enough to refer them to this Blog for a short lesson on the history of the marathon😜😜😜.

After conquering my first marathon, and getting hooked to running, I started reading about running increasingly. I read about the battle between the Persians and the Athenians that had occurred in a coastal town of Greece called Marathon. This is the town Pheidippides ran from and the marathon derived its name from. To me this all sounded like ancient history and the thought of tracing Pheidippides’ footsteps did not cross my mind at all. However, in 2016 when the 100BEFORE40 project was well under way and I was planning my races for 2017, I stumbled upon the Athens Marathon. The Authentic. The name is “Athens Marathon. The Authentic”, not just the Athens Marathon. My initial dream was to run it  as my 100^th marathon, sometime in 2022 or 2023. However, the more I read about the Athens Marathon. The Authentic, the more excited and impatient I became. On December 31, 2016, I decided that 2017 was the year. I was not going to wait for my 100^th marathon. I was going to run the Athens Marathon. The Authentic in November 2017. Part of the reasons was that I was worried that I might not make it to 100 marathons. I was also worried that I might get injured or some sort of tragedy might strike, and I may not get a chance to run the most iconic marathon in the World, at least in my view.

I listed the Athens Marathon. The Authentic on my 2017 wish list. I would not have blamed anyone or been angry with anyone if they laughed at, or made fun of, my wish list. It was more of a small child's letter to Santa Claus than anything. It was a pure case of “we will see how it goes.” The list also had the Mauritius Marathon on it. Agatha,  objected to us going for the Mauritius Marathon and the Athens Marathon. The Authentic leaving the kids behind. As the more level-headed member of our household executive committee, and a good candidate for the position of Minister of Finance, she insisted on skipping the Mauritius Marathon and going for the Athens Marathon. The Authentic as a family. It sounded like a brilliant plan, but the adventurer in me was adamant that I would run the Mauritius Marathon in 2017 as well. I decided that I would go for the Mauritius Marathon alone, instead of going with Agatha as initially planned. This would save a bit of money and enable us to go for the big one, the Athens Marathon. The Authentic as a full team and enjoy it. Well, as fate would have it, I was too broke to go for the solo expedition when the Mauritius Marathon came in July. Instead, I ended up running the Knysna Forest Marathon.

The Three Musketeers (read hanger-ons) at the Eiffel Tower. 

The Mauritius Marathon failure, coupled with the Big Five Marathon drama, reminded me of the old adage "do not count your chickens before they are hatched." From then on, I would say "I am hoping to do the Athens Marathon. The Authentic this year" even after booking the flights, hotel and other things. We still had to obtain visas, and most important of all - I had to be in good health (injury free) to be able to run the original marathon. Therefore, I could not say with certainty that I was going to run the race. The Athens Marathon. The Authentic, gave my daughters an early opportunity to fulfill their dream of travelling to Paris and overseas. So, there was a huge debate about the trip. I wanted to go to Athens via Amsterdam. They wanted to go via Paris. They wanted the whole Eiffel Tower, and whatever comes with it, experience. We ended up voting on this. Despite Agatha pretending to be a neutral, I was outvoted by three votes to one. From that point, we had two groups. A group of the Three Musketeers, and my group (me, myself and I). In the end, I really enjoyed the Paris experience, minus the shopping which brought about arguments about how long, and how much money, it was taking..

The step of very content people😜

We arrived in Athens two days before the race and were scheduled to leave on the second day after the race. This gave us enough time for all the sight-seeing. The first night was quite nerve wrecking though. On our way from the airport, the taxi driver told us to be very careful as our hotel was in the most dangerous part of Athens. What? I asked. He repeated, this time adding that the hotel was a nice hotel, but it was in a dangerous area. All the excitement disappeared. We battled to sleep that night. In the morning I told Agatha of my grand plan. The plan was to walk around very confident with very serious to scary looks on our faces. That kind of look that says, “this place is dangerous, we are the people that make it dangerous so, don’t dare get us started." After walking around in the area for an hour or so, we realized that the place was not that bad at all. There were some dodgy corners, but the people were a lot more friendly than we had imagined the whole night. We got all sorts of smiles from almost everyone on the streets. We also got weird looks from some people. These looks only made sense later when we realized that we were, for a change, the minority. 

The all important race pack...

My focus was the running and visiting the Acropolis Hill and the Tomb of Marathon. Our first port of call on Friday morning was the Expo, to collect our race packs. We arrived at the Expo just after it opened. It was well organised and collecting our race packs was pretty quick. After collecting our race packs we walked around and bought a few Athens Marathon. The Authentic souvenirs. 

Lunch is served Kisoro / Dande style😋

We were at the Expo for about two hours (time flies when you are having fun). Before leaving the Expo, Agatha got us some "lunch" that we enjoyed on the shores of the Aegean Sea. After "lunch" we headed for Acropolis Hill. Agatha and the kids were now in full control of the programme. They made me walk, what looked like, the whole of Athens over the next two days. We must have walked at least 10 kilometers on each day, in addition to the more than 10 kilometers we had walked in Paris en-route to Athens. I sometimes felt sorry for Kudzi. She never complained about the walking and kept going even when she was visibly tired. All she regularly complained about was being hungry. In the end, we saved a lot of money on transport, but blew it on food, just keep the fuel levels high.

The real 100BEFORE40 train. The full team right there👆👆👆👆

On the eve of the race we went to the town of Marathon (Marathonas) for the official opening ceremony. I had traveled half way across the World and wanted to be part of all the festivities associated with the race. The official opening was a low-key affair attended by the dignitaries and a few runners and followers like me who “like things”. Listening to speaker after speaker talking about the rich history of the race was mind-blowing. There was also the re-enactment of the Battle of Marathon and the handing over of the Olympic Torch. This was a great moment that I am proud of witnessing. It made me (and Agatha, at last) realize and truly appreciate that the Athens Marathon. The Authentic is truly an Iconic race.

Tomb of Marathon.

Eventually, race day arrived. I battled to sleep the night before the race as usual. I was up around half past three in the morning. I studied the route / course map over and over before leaving the hotel around five. The nearest bus pick-up point was less than a kilometer from our hotel. There were many runners walking on the streets, so I did not have to worry about the “most dangerous part of Athens”. The bus drive to the start was about an hour long.  I sat next to a chap who seemed more nervous about the race than me. I tried to have a conversation with him, but he clearly wanted to have his "me time". I left him alone and focused on what lay ahead. I can understand why the chap was not really interested in chatting. No matter how many marathons you may have done, each is unique and always brings goosebumps. You worry about almost anything that may go wrong on the day, from shoes, cramps, injuries, the stomach, the weather and many other things. That is exactly what I did for almost an hour. I worried about all these things and repeatedly assured my self that I would be fine. 

Running past the Dromeas
(12-meter-tall glass and iron sculpture in Athens)

After getting off the bus, I knew there was no turning back. It was at that point that I started saying, with confidence, “I am doing the Athens Marathon. The Authentic”. From this point, I knew that I would be an Athens Marathon. The Authentic finisher by the end of the day, even if it meant crawling to the finish. There were 18,000 runners registered for the marathon. I was seeded in Block 6. We took off some 10 or so minutes after the main group, the Elites and Block 1. We ran around the Tomb of Marathon, supposedly to pay our respects to the 192 Athenians buried there. From the start, the route is a gentle climb into Athens. The main road connecting Athens to Marathonas was completely closed. This was befitting for a race of this magnitude. I was wearing my Zimbabwe flag vest, but every now and then I was asked if I was from Kenya? I would respond with a very loud and clear voice that I was from Zimbabwe, and wished I had the prowess of the Kenyans when it comes to road running. Buoyed by the very hospitable crowds on the road sides and partially carried away by the "are you from Kenya questions", I stepped on the gas and crossed the halfway mark after 1h57. This was three minutes ahead of my schedule. I even began believing that I would finish comfortably under four hours. But the longer we went, the more all the walking around in Paris and Athens for the past three days and the bad pacing caught up with me. Between the 25^th and 30^th kilometers, I slowed down a bit, but that was too little too late. The damage to my legs had already been done. When the descent into Athens came around the the 32^nd kilometer, after about three hours and five minutes, my legs were “heavy”. Even running downhill was difficult. However, I kept going in an attempt to finish under four hours. I must have carried this hope until about the 38^th kilometer when all hope for a sub-4-hour finish vanished. From there, I slowed down to absorb the atmosphere one last time.

Panathenaic Stadium home strecth

The final kilometer brought about mixed emotions for me. I was tired, but elated that I had made it. The 100BEFORE40 train had successfully traced the footsteps of the Legendary Pheidippides. Well, not so fast. Pheidippides is said to have collapsed and died after delivering the message. I still had to cross the finish line and meet up with my family, before claiming that I had done what Pheidippides had failed to do, live to tell the tale. The site of the Panathenaic Stadium brought the reality home. I had avoided going to the stadium for the two days we had walked around Athens. I wanted my marathon finish to be the first time I set foot on the stadium. The Panathenaic Stadium has a special place in history. It was the first venue of modern day Olympics in 1896. The very vocal and apathetic crowd in the stadium was awesome. I looked around to see if Agatha and our little angels were witnessing and sharing my great moment with me. I did not see them, but they had a clear view of me. Listening to them explain how they saw me raising my flag high as I entered the stadium, I can tell they were very proud of me.

After my 4h10 finish, I collected my very beautiful and heavy medal, my second most priced medal (the Comrades Marathon medal remains number one) and met up with my angels. After a few hugs and kisses and a million photographs, it was time for Agatha to prepare for her race. She was done with babysitting duties and it was now my turn. We left Agatha at the starting point of her race and went back to the stadium to wait for her. She finished her five-kilometer race after a respectable 35 minutes. 

That look when you have just slaughtered the race😜😜😜

And that was it, I had completed marathon 14/17 Marathons for 2017. The 100BEFORE40 project could now boast of having done a marathon on the original course run by the first man ever to run a marathon; well, most of it. While we are at that, the legend continues that Pheidippides had actually run about 147 miles to Sparta and back to seek the assistance of the Spartans. Upon his return, empty handed, he fought in the battle and then ran from Marathon to Athens. Today there is also a race called Spartathlon Ultramarathon (250 kilometers) which celebrates Pheidippides's heroics. Despite the Sparta part of the story, Pheidippides died upon completing and I will stick with that part of the story😜😜😜. I survived Marathonas to Athens, Pheidippides didn't!!! Athens was great and the European leg of the 100BEFORE40 was done and dusted.

Mama, I did it😜😜😜

As you, or should, by now know, if it is not on Facebook, it did not happen. I documented my great moment at the Athens Marathon. The Authentic as follows:

#100BEFORE40 Marathon 14/17 Marathons for 2017, Athens Marathon the Authentic, loading complete. Not even witchcraft could stop this one. It was bound to happen; the whole gang was in it💪💪💪. I really enjoyed following the footsteps of Pheidippides up to 37km. After that, it felt like I was going to join him among the dead. Being the only Zimbabwean flag bearer on the entire course on the day, I was not going to let that happen. So, I soldiered on. I didn’t even have energy for my signature jump, but my daughters did the jump for me afterwards. Then it was my turn for seconding duties, seconding my better half (the sole Ugandan flag bearer on the day) for her fast 5km afternoon race. We came, we conquered, and we are very happy customers. And well done to South Africa for having 38 Marathon finishers on the day👊👊👊. The 100BEFORE40 train moves on. Next, Sani Stagger Marathon, Underberg KZN.

Other moments...