Spartathlon: Runners Trace Footsteps of Pheidippides from Athens to Sparta

The Spartathlon is simply a historical ultra-distance ft contention held annually successful September successful Greece. File photo. Credit: Spartathlon

Hundreds of ultra-marathon runners took portion successful the historical Spartathlon contention from Athens to Sparta connected Saturday.

The Spartathlon is simply a historical ultra-distance ft contention held annually successful September successful Greece. It is 1 of the astir challenging and intriguing ultra-distance races successful the satellite owed to its unsocial past and background.

Radek Brunner of the Czech Republic has been crowned the victor of the Spartathlon 2025, reaching the statue of King Leonidas successful Sparta first. Brynner, who was moving the historical Ultramarathon for the tenth time, finished the grueling 245-kilometer contention with a clip of 22:55:13. Greece’s ain Giorgos Dimoulas finished successful 5th spot arsenic the apical Greek runner.

The Spartathlon revives the footsteps of Pheidippides

The Spartathlon revives the footsteps of Pheidippides, an past Athenian long-distance runner, who, successful 490 BC earlier the conflict of Marathon, was sent to Sparta to question assistance successful the warfare betwixt the Greeks and the Persians.

It was successful September of the twelvemonth 490 BC when, conscionable 42 kilometers (26 miles) extracurricular of Athens, a vastly outnumbered service of brave soldiers saved their metropolis from the invading Persian army.

But arsenic the people of past shows, successful the Battle of Marathon, they saved much than conscionable their ain city. They saved Athenian ideology itself, and consequently, protected the people of Western civilization.

According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides arrived successful Sparta the time aft his departure from Athens.

According to Herodotus, Pheidippides ran backmost to Athens aft delivering the message. His travel connected ft to and from Sparta lasted an unthinkable 3 days.

Just arsenic successful the different mentation of the story, which unaccountably gained much traction implicit the years, the subject courier ran from the battlefield at search Marathon northeast of the Greek superior and past collapsed and died afterward.

Everyone has ever known this iconic fig arsenic the antheral who tragically passed distant successful 490 BC aft bringing the bully quality successful the signifier of the connection “νικε!,” oregon “Victory!” to the citadel successful Athens aft the Persians had yet been defeated.

Part of the occupation whitethorn beryllium owed to the information that the search Marathon to Athens tally was brought to the attraction of Westerners by mode of Robert Browning’s 1879 poem “Pheidippides.”

Spartathlon, the eventual agelong run

In 1984, the International Association “Spartathlon” was founded, which has since past continuously organized the contention each September.

In 2021, Greek runner Fotis Zisimopoulos won the 39th Spartathlon.

Greek seasoned runner Yiannis Kouros, who won the archetypal variation of Spartathlon, inactive holds the grounds clip astatine 20:25:00.

Kouros has been called galore things by his peers, moving experts, and the public: “The Running God,” “The Golden Greek,” “Modern Pheidippides,” “The Master of Pain,” and “Unstoppable” are among these. All these epithets are much than well-deserved.

According to the website “Ultrarunning History,” the seasoned Greek jock is the top ultrarunner of each time.

Ultrarunning experts person besides calculated the miles the 63-year-old Greek runner has tally since precocious schoolhouse and travel to the decision that Kouros has covered the region from the world to the moon.