What do you look for when picking your annual marathon (if that’s your thing…)? Is it a star on your way to being a Six (soon to be 7) star finisher? Is it the flattest, fastest route you can find to up your chances of those all important club championship points? Maybe bright lights and big city aren’t for you, and you prefer something off-road or low-key instead?My latest choice was none of these things. It was however, back to where it all began – because make no mistake, if it wasn’t for the decision to create a new athletics event for the modern Olympic Games in 1896, modelled on the famous feat of Pheidippides who ran from Marathon to Athens following a battle… then none of the other marathon events we take on would exist.

The 1896 marathon route was roughly 40km or 25 miles. As you all know… the event distance didn’t become 26.2 miles until the 1908 London games, with the story going that the course was lengthened the finish of the race lined up with the royal box. The ‘Athens authentic marathon’ of course is now also 26.2 miles / 42.2k. But it still starts in the village of Marathon, near the scene of the ancient battle, and it finishes at the Panathenaic stadium that was built for those 1896 games, the first of the modern era.

Anyway, enough of the history lessons. As it’s a point-to-point run, the marathon experience begins with buses out to the start. Still completely dark at 6am and a bit of a rammy trying to get on one with waiting runners strewn along the roadside. It looked pretty chaotic when we arrived too, as different buses found a place to stop and offload their passengers. People milling around looking for somewhere to pee, and deciding on clothing before bag drop-off as it was still chilly with the sun not fully up. Initial appearances of disorganisation were deceptive though, once round the corner we saw all the baggage trucks neatly lined up, clear signage, and the best ratio of portaloos to runners I’ve ever experienced at a marathon! (Even if toilet paper provision was less impressive – surely any experienced runner knows to carry their own supplies of that though??).

The marathon starts in waves of 1500-1700 people at a time, and I was lucky enough to be in the 4th wave based on previous marathon times. Even with the phasing it was still narrow and congested in the first few miles. I’d been told in advance by multiple people about Athens being the hilliest of any major marathon. My guess is that this puts a lot of people off, especially those who are already daunted by just completing the distance. A lot of the route itself is also not fascinating – along the road that connects to Athens, through various towns along the way.

But as well as the sheer romance of imagining Ancient Greek forerunners, or even Spyridon Louis en route to victory at that first ever marathon race in 1896, there are a bunch of features I wasn’t aware of beforehand that help create a really memorable event. There are organised kids fun runs at the different villages before the runners pass through. That means that every place you go through has beaming kids shouting support, with race bibs on their chests and medals round their necks. No-one smiles and cheers like post-race kids do! At the earlier stages of the race some supporters handed out sprigs of olive tree for luck, and runners had them tucked into headbands, braids or wristbands.

The main cheer from spectators was “bravo” or “brava”. Clearly a strong Italian contingent among the support as well as Greeks and those who’d travelled from all over the world to the marathon birthplace. The few personalised shouts I got were for “AH, PORTO BELLO..!” thanks to the Italian language origin of our club name 😀

I knew it was predominantly uphill until around 31km/ 19 miles, and it was at that point we’d encounter the biggest/steepest hill of the entire course. It was also getting hotter as the day wore on, and there was very little shade. So my plan was not complicated – hang in there and keep it steady until after the crest of that hill and then see what I had left for the final 10k that was downhill! I’d had two disappointing marathons before this, and I hadn’t been sub-4 since 2022 at Chicago. Given Chicago is fabulously flat and fast, with winning times 10 minutes quicker than anyone’s run at Athens – it was possibly naive to think I could get back to this now. But that was the dream!

One benefit was superb facilities along the route. There was water and toilets every 1.5k, with regular sponges, medical support, Powerade, bananas, energy gels and bars, and Coke at different stops too. All well staffed and organised.

When I hit 20 miles, after passing the top of the final hill, the maths at least was easy. I had to run the remaining 10k in sub 8.30 min/mile pace and sub-4 was possible. I’d averaged around 9.30 min/mile on the previous, albeit toughest, 10k so this was a stretch. Pretty damn hot for a Scot by then too though!! But being this close was a big motivation. Add to that you’re coming into the city so much bigger crowds and more going on, noise levels rising all the time.

So I put on the charge. Each water station at that point saw me drinking a few slurps and pouring more over my head to stay cool as I picked up the pace. And you know how it is, the closer you get, the more your belief builds. I thought I was doing great, but with about a mile to go, the 3:59:59 pacer came charging past. I couldn’t believe it! They’d started behind me and I thought I had time to spare but they were flying past at sub-8 min mile pace. I wasn’t quite at the point where I was going to make like Pheidippides who collapsed and died after passing on his news back in 490 BC…. But I was pretty shattered – maybe like Heracles or Theseus felt after wrestling the Cretan/Marathonian bull for an hour or two. (I did like the supporter sign telling us that we had “more stamina than a Greek hero”! 😀)

You couldn’t help but get lifted by the finish. You can hear it before you see it and you know it’s that phenomenal old stadium from the 1896 Games. Just totally awesome. Seeing the sign for 250m and heading in to the stadium itself I was thinking surely I can do that in less than 2 and a half minutes, even now?? And yes – official finish time 3:59.07. Job done! (The 3.59.59 pacer had clearly panicked and I’d obviously paced it better than them…! Just goes to show…)

Final, closing thoughts…
– one of the best finishes of any marathon I’ve done. Up there with the Mall in London. (Although tbf, Shona still got to do the same finish in the 10k race… everyone knows she’s the smart one in our relationship)
– There’s a definite feeling of ‘pilgrimage’ to the home of the event, like doing Bushy Park parkrun for those ‘parkrun tourists’ out there (yep, no idea 🤷🏼‍♂️ – what even is parkrun?? 😜)
– I loved the Greek history and culture out there, although I think by the time we hit Tuesday evening the only thing more exhausted than us marathon runners was Shona’s enthusiasm for seeing any more Ancient Greek archaeology…
– If you’re anything like me – then any calories lost during the run will be more than replenished. I ate my own body weight in saganaki, souvlaki and baklava in the days following.

So, don’t do it for the PB, but do it for the experience.