The Athens Marathon: The Authentic is like no other on Earth. According to legend, it covers the same ground that the Athenian messenger Phiedippides ran when he brought news of victory from the battlefield of Marathon 2,500 years ago. When you run the Athens Marathon: The Authentic, you run in the very footsteps of the ancient gods and heros that gave birth to western civilization. The finish line is in Athens’ magnificent Olympic Stadium, the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. Those who run the Athens Marathon: The Authentic say it is an experience they’ll never forget.

The Athens Marathon: The Authentic is recognized as the original marathon course and it was the same course used in the 2004 Olympics held in Athens.

I trained with Arno Jutten, captain on board one of our vessels, during the season in Canada-New England where we were sailing. We would always run in Quebec city, a great place to run, as there is a running/biking path all the way from the ship’s terminal all the way to the bridge which covers 10.5km one way and thus half a marathon when running to the bridge and back. After Arno finished his first half marathon in Quebec, I told him ‘now we’re going to run a marathon’. Without him knowing, I registered him for the Athens marathon – I already registered myself and thought it would be nice to cover Athens together. And so it happened….we flew to Athens and we both finished – congrats to Arno who was probably cursing at me during his first marathon 🙂

The route

Me and Arco at the registration

And at the Olympic stadium

And our well deserved medal