Congratulations 🎉🎉 really enjoyed the video and many thanks for supporting the authentic marathon! Of course I was not a vip runner but the uphill and difficulty of the route is the same for everyone...no vip treatment 😂
The Greek historian Herodotus was the first person to write about an Athenian runner named Pheidippides participating in the First Persian War. Herodotus based his reports on eye witnesses so they are considered accurate by later historians. Of course there were no cameras or youtube in 490 BC... so we can never be sure, although the beauty of a story is the mystery around it, isn't it? Pheidippides was serving in the Athenian army as a Herald or "professional running courier". The most famous story about him is the run from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory. This run inspired the Marathon race. However there is an even more interesting story about him that inspired two of the most iconic Ultramarathon races... A few days before the battle of Marathon took place, Pheidippides was sent from Athens to Sparta to request help from the Spartan warriors (which by the way was refused by the Spartans with the excuse that they were celebrating some religious festival). He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days, and then ran back. 480 Km in 4 days followed by the 40Km run to Athens might explain why he collapsed right after. Note to take recovery days seriously... The run to Sparta and back inspired two iconic ultramarathon races: The Spartathlon and the Feat of Feidippides race. Based on Herodotus's account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres (155 miles) in a day and a half (36 hours). Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Scholtens (34h30m), John Foden (37h37m), and John McCarthy (39h00m). Since 1983 it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippides's run across 246 km (153 mi) of Greek countryside. In 2023, Camille Herron set a new women's course record of 22h 35min 31s, an improvement of 2h 12min 53s under the previous course record and the first woman under 24h. Fotis Zisimopoulos won for the third time and set a new men's course record in 19h 55min 9s, becoming the first athlete under 20h and broke the longheld record of 20:25:00 set by Yiannis Kouros in 1984. For Yannis Kouros though there was a problem... Spartathlon was not historically accurate... So he went ahead and created the Feat of Feidippides race. Feidippides’ Athlos (the Feat of Feidippides) is a foot race, inspired and conceived by Yiannis Kouros to mark the completeness of the overexertion of Pheidippides, who was sent by the Athenians in 490 BC to seek help from Sparta and return to Athens. The idea was born after Spartahlon '83, where Yiannis Kouros outraged by the false route that was "forced" to follow by the British organizers (at the intersection of Isthmia, then to Epidaurus, instead to direction towards Examilia, then west (!) to Ancient Corinth and then north (!!!) to Assos of Corinthia (instead south, where Sparta is). Immediately after the race and the route fiasco, he started doing studies and multiple running exploits to Arcadia, Lakonia, Argolis and Corinthia, detecting the possible route so one day to come and run it, thus reviving in full the feat of Pheidippides. At the same time, he asked the organizers of the "truncated" and counterfeited route of Spartathlon (= SPARTa-ATHens-LONdon!!!) to remove the phrase "in the footsteps of Pheidippides' because, indeed, the route does not follow it. Going through the Artemision mountain rather than from the Parthenion mountain, as evidenced by Herodotus’ sources, not only they do not honor Pheidippides, but they reduce the enormous amount of his effort and blackguard his ambiguous contribution. Yiannis Kouros had fixed the plan of the complete course from 1985, long before immigrating to Australia, but due to livelihood problems, this project, like others he had compiled, was postponed. Therefore, it remained idle, planned to take shape after his studies and his return from Australia. Thus, he is the only athlete who has done in full and from the correct route the Feat of Feidippides, has conceived the name of the event and its emblem. With multi-member crew this race was organized and completed by Yiannis Kouros in 2005 (53h 43) and 2011 (61h 24:21) -including 30 minutes speech to Spartans, interview and short rest on the way back, in both events. ~From Wikipedia, Yannis Kouros official website and some memories from my Greek history courses... I hope you enjoyed reading.
Δεν είναι θρύλος, είναι ιστορία,κ οι Αθηναίοι αμέσως μετά την νικηφόρα μάχη με τους Πέρσες, έφυγαν για Αθήνα,να την προστατεύσουν, γιατί δεν ξέρανε αν οι Πέρσες,θα φύγουν οριστικά η θα πήγαιναν στην Αθήνα με τα καράβια τους
It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful that we were able to experience this marathon together.
Congratulations 🎉🎉 really enjoyed the video and many thanks for supporting the authentic marathon! Of course I was not a vip runner but the uphill and difficulty of the route is the same for everyone...no vip treatment 😂
The Greek historian Herodotus was the first person to write about an Athenian runner named Pheidippides participating in the First Persian War.
Herodotus based his reports on eye witnesses so they are considered accurate by later historians. Of course there were no cameras or youtube in 490 BC... so we can never be sure, although the beauty of a story is the mystery around it, isn't it?
Pheidippides was serving in the Athenian army as a Herald or "professional running courier". The most famous story about him is the run from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory. This run inspired the Marathon race. However there is an even more interesting story about him that inspired two of the most iconic Ultramarathon races...
A few days before the battle of Marathon took place, Pheidippides was sent from Athens to Sparta to request help from the Spartan warriors (which by the way was refused by the Spartans with the excuse that they were celebrating some religious festival). He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days, and then ran back.
480 Km in 4 days followed by the 40Km run to Athens might explain why he collapsed right after. Note to take recovery days seriously...
The run to Sparta and back inspired two iconic ultramarathon races: The Spartathlon and the Feat of Feidippides race.
Based on Herodotus's account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres (155 miles) in a day and a half (36 hours). Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Scholtens (34h30m), John Foden (37h37m), and John McCarthy (39h00m). Since 1983 it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippides's run across 246 km (153 mi) of Greek countryside. In 2023, Camille Herron set a new women's course record of 22h 35min 31s, an improvement of 2h 12min 53s under the previous course record and the first woman under 24h.
Fotis Zisimopoulos won for the third time and set a new men's course record in 19h 55min 9s, becoming the first athlete under 20h and broke the longheld record of 20:25:00 set by Yiannis Kouros in 1984.
For Yannis Kouros though there was a problem... Spartathlon was not historically accurate... So he went ahead and created the Feat of Feidippides race.
Feidippides’ Athlos (the Feat of Feidippides) is a foot race, inspired and conceived by Yiannis Kouros to mark the completeness of the overexertion of Pheidippides, who was sent by the Athenians in 490 BC to seek help from Sparta and return to Athens. The idea was born after Spartahlon '83, where Yiannis Kouros outraged by the false route that was "forced" to follow by the British organizers (at the intersection of Isthmia, then to Epidaurus, instead to direction towards Examilia, then west (!) to Ancient Corinth and then north (!!!) to Assos of Corinthia (instead south, where Sparta is).
Immediately after the race and the route fiasco, he started doing studies and multiple running exploits to Arcadia, Lakonia, Argolis and Corinthia, detecting the possible route so one day to come and run it, thus reviving in full the feat of Pheidippides. At the same time, he asked the organizers of the "truncated" and counterfeited route of Spartathlon (= SPARTa-ATHens-LONdon!!!) to remove the phrase "in the footsteps of Pheidippides' because, indeed, the route does not follow it. Going through the Artemision mountain rather than from the Parthenion mountain, as evidenced by Herodotus’ sources, not only they do not honor Pheidippides, but they reduce the enormous amount of his effort and blackguard his ambiguous contribution.
Yiannis Kouros had fixed the plan of the complete course from 1985, long before immigrating to Australia, but due to livelihood problems, this project, like others he had compiled, was postponed.
Therefore, it remained idle, planned to take shape after his studies and his return from Australia. Thus, he is the only athlete who has done in full and from the correct route the Feat of Feidippides, has conceived the name of the event and its emblem. With multi-member crew this race was organized and completed by Yiannis Kouros in 2005 (53h 43) and 2011 (61h 24:21) -including 30 minutes speech to Spartans, interview and short rest on the way back, in both events.
~From Wikipedia, Yannis Kouros official website and some memories from my Greek history courses... I hope you enjoyed reading.
Congrats from block 10!!! come again next year. A correction: the stadium we finish is the Panathenaic stadium not Olympic
Δεν είναι θρύλος, είναι ιστορία,κ οι Αθηναίοι αμέσως μετά την νικηφόρα μάχη με τους Πέρσες, έφυγαν για Αθήνα,να την προστατεύσουν, γιατί δεν ξέρανε αν οι Πέρσες,θα φύγουν οριστικά η θα πήγαιναν στην Αθήνα με τα καράβια τους