Spartathlon had been on my radar for the last 10 years or so. Back in 2015, I was comfortably on for qualifying when I went through 50 miles of the Centurion A100 in 8:47 and needed to finish the last 50 in just 13:43 to hit the old qualifying time. I took over 8 hours for the last 25 mile leg to finish in 22:40 and miss out by 10 minutes. Later that, year the qualifying time for 100 miles was cut to 21 hours and I took me years to improve enough just to qualify.
I finally had a qualifying time when I ran sub 20 for the 2020 Thames Path. However I had unfinished business with Lon Las in October 2021 and then a rematch with UTMB in 2022 meant that qualifier expired. Fortunately I had managed to dip under 21 hours for Thames Path in 2021 so had one year of eligibility left but wasn’t expecting much from my roll of the dice.
I had kind of forgotten about my Sparta application - 2023 was meant to be a light year after Lakeland 100 and Lon Las in 2021, and Western States & UTMB in 2022. I already had a place in GUCR so was reasonably set for 2023.
Then this popped up on Strava. 
My wife very kindly signed off on me abandoning the family to go jogging as she knew Spartathlon was a bucket list race for me. 6 months later, I was on the start line for Sparta.
The race started at 7am - just before sunrise outside the Acropolis. For some, it is the best start line in Ultra running but it is a bunch of people hanging out in a dark car park but had quite a nice vibe. I was pretty apprehensive to put it mildly
I had got to the start line a bit later than most as I ended up on the second coach from the hotel. My room mate was a bit slow getting ready so we ended up on the second one along with Diana (winner last year) and a random Mexican. This was a massive result as the coach was very chilled and got to chat with ultra running royalty.
The first few miles were quite nice. I was near the back and it was gently downhill - the main priority was not to hit any street furniture or fall over. It weaved its way through Athens with the roads closed for traffic. This year it was on a Saturday morning so less disruption than normal.
I’m tucked in behind Ivor with David Harvey in red
First couple of miles were downhill and first aid station out of the way. It was remarkably stuffy for 730am which was ominous but it was a case of taking it one mile at a time. The first hill was a run-walk for me and quite a few people streamed past me. I was aiming for 9:45 a mile to get me to 20km in 2 hours but accepted giving 2 minutes back by walking the climb. Me and David Harvey were pretty much the only ones walking it.
A nice downhill was next to offset the climb and 28 minutes for the next 3 miles got me back on pace. 5 miles in 50 minutes set me up for 12 miles in 2 hours.
At 6 miles, there was a junction where we crossed the Athenian version of the M4. The traffic had been held in both directions for quite some time (Fotis was through in about 30 minutes and I was nearer 60) and there was lots of impatient drivers not too happy.
I had just about got across the junction and was maybe 50-100 metres along the road when the road was reopened and hundreds of diesel trucks and cars accelerated past me. A double kick as the fumes weren’t nice, and I was clearly very much at the back of the race. I hadn’t really thought about it as I was running my own race but it was a sharp reminder.
Spartathlon has strict qualifying criteria - sub 21 for 100 miles or 180km in 24 hours excludes most people. Given then that my qualifying time from 2021 was only 20 minutes inside the minimum, I knew I would be at the back but it was still a bit weird as it was the first time I had been in that position in a race since school.
The next 10k or so was along the main motorway out of Athens. It was as bad as it sounds, and there quite a few scrap yards and uninspiring views. A highlight for me was the Hellas Petroleum refinery. I work in Marine & Energy insurance and there was a major fire in 2022 there. The refinery is quite imposing but was also towards the end of the motorway section. Fotis would almost have been off the motorway when the traffic was released
It was surprisingly sociable running on the hard shoulder. I ended up running with Chris Rice - an absolute beast of a man with an unusual running gait. He was one of 12 to finish the 2018 Spartan Death Race so in the potentially unique position of doing both.
I also ran with a couple of Greek guys - one lived in Sparta and the other was from Athens. They had lived in Australia and Manchester so it was a good chat.
The first major aid station with timing was at 20km. The cut off here was 2h10 and I made it here in 2h01 so just 9 minutes to spare. However my plan was 2 hours so I was only a minute off that. It marked the end of the heavy traffic and now it was more residential streets.
This didn’t last long as a left turn meant it was back into another refinery with dozens of massive storage tanks on both sides of the road. This wasn’t a route used by regular traffic so it was nice enough to run along.
After 17 miles or so, the route joined up with the coastal road. It was hard to really enjoy it given the weight of what was ahead plus it is hard to truly relax on road with no pavement but it is a beautiful section here. Not too hot either yet and the sea made things cooler than in the city
The next major milestone was the marathon checkpoint. It had a cut off of 4h45 and I was comfortably through in 4h22 with a healthy buffer of 23 minutes - roughly 2 miles at my current pace. My next goal after that was the 50 mile checkpoint with a cut off of 9h30 so and my aim was 9h which was achievable with an average pace of 12 minutes a mile which is run walk for me. I had been doing some walking breaks but had averaged less than 10 minutes a mile to here and 13 minutes a mile would still be within cut off.
I met my crew for the first time here. I hadn’t planned on having crew but Graeme Boxall was due to crew someone else and when they withdrew he kindly offered to crew me. His friend Julia came along too and they came to meet me here. My needs were fairly limited - the checkpoints generally only have coke so I got a refill on electrolytes drinks and some non-coke fizzy drinks like sprite.
It was a bit of a climb here - not that big in the grand scheme of things but a bit of a drag. I joined up again with Chris Rice - he was running topless due to chafing issues whereas I had almost every bit of skin covered. Lots of ways to do these things….
The route alternated between coastal roads and sections through the middle of towns. I was losing a few places here and there on my walking breaks but I had my own game plan so was pretty relax. I ran with Darren Strachan for some of this section and cross paths with a few of the Brits here too.
One of the great things about Spartathlon is the British Spartathlon Team. They organise team kit so you get to run in team colours. This has the huge bonus of being able to instantly spot your team mates and also crew had kit provided so crew could team up and support each other
Big shoutout to the sponsors for making it happen. They feature on the crew kit but sponsors are banned for participants. The kits help avoid any issues
In the first 50 miles, there was a bunch of Brits who I crossed paths with and had chats but my run-walk pace was a bit variable.
I largely ignored the cut offs between 26 and 50 miles. Each aid station has a sign with a selection of metrics such as cut off time, distance to go, distance to the next CP etc but there wasn’t a single one in the entire race that I managed to take in more than one or two of them. The main one I worried was checking that my Garmin was tracking with distance which it broadly was. This is just as well as my healthy margin of 23 minutes had dropped to just 15 at 51km and was also 15 minutes at 65km.
I manage to feature in Andy Persson’s video here too
A few more landmarks of the route were ticked off. The shipwreck of the Mediterranean Sky and the circles of the fish farms before another major refinery to pass through.
I was coping quite well with the heat but quite a few weren’t. I saw David Harvey and Andy Persson both struggling with cramps in this part - I don’t think I had any significant cramps the whole way round. I didn’t do a lot of heat training - running in hoddies and a nice mini heatwave in September were about it.
There was one particularly memorable moment. A German chap who stood against a wall in the middle of aid station right next to the drinks and started vomiting. This led to a range of emotions. Firstly disgust as the chap could easily have moved the road a few steps away thus keeping the aid station hygienic and saving the volunteers an unpleasant job. Secondly empathy - the guy’s race was in tatters and we were only 15-20 minutes up on cut off so he didn’t have much margin to play with. A thirdly joy as it meant others were having a much rougher time of it and this chap was mostly likely going to be one of the 40% or so DNFs and that would improve my chances (I know it doesn’t work like that).
After the refinery, it was some fairly major roads up to the Corinth Canal. Quite a lot of people don’t even make it here so it was quite emotional to get here. It was pretty much the only photo I took on the way and took a few seconds out to post on Facebook
Once across the canal, it was a short distance to the checkpoint and the second crew spot. My crew were possibly a bit optimistic with their arrival time - they are in the backdrop here behind Camille
I had got here in at 9h04 so 26 minutes to spare. My mental planning had been all about getting to here just over 9 hours so it was a relief to get here without having used up to much. Just as well as I still had 103 miles (164km) to go.
I had only really worked towards 100 miles and 22h10 being the next milestone. I hadn’t really researched from here onwards and it doesn’t really feature in YouTube videos so it was a bit of an unknown for me. However I had a good idea of pacing so was just taking it one aid station at a time.
The course changes a lot here. The organisers are quite restricted on the route at the beginning and end due to limited choices but here they were able to move more towards rural roads through farm land. The terrain change helped as well as the massive boost that I had made it to Corinth. A lot of people don’t make it this far
The route out of the Hellas Can Factory was a modest climb. Given that I had just refuelled, it was a chance to consolidate a bit. It was quite reassuring knowing that I was well done the road and still within the cut off. I managed to get the modest climb out of the way and onto the flat straight section before 9h30 was on the clock.
One of the benefits of the team nature of the event was that my crew could help out with other runners. I had given Graeme the nod that David Harvey and Andy were struggling a bit with cramp so were able to get stuff ready if needed.
On the way out of Corinth, I ran with Ivor a bit. I’ve known him since 2016 when we did the SDW100 together and he lives one stop from me on the train so we bump into each other on commutes and on the North Downs. He was having a very tough race with some digestive issues but was battling on. He zoomed off up the road after a while as I was taking it a bit easier.
Next crew point was Ancient Corinth. Julia and Graeme were having dinner in a taverna and had a bottle of sprite ready for me. I stole a couple of Julia’s chips and was very tempted to ask for some beer to turn my sprite into a shandy. There is only one crew point in the first 50 miles but they become more frequent so not much rest between them.
Just after here is one of the iconic parts of the route where you run past the ruins of Ancient Corinth. I didn’t really look at them much but are a major tourist attraction and lots of people had good photos of themselves here.
Sir Ian, pictured by Ancient Corinth
I had 35 minutes in hand and all the Brits had made it this far which means at least it was a full day out of running for all 22 of us.
The aim now was getting as far down the road before darkness. This year Fotis made it to the mountain in daylight but I would not be so lucky.
I’m used to carrying mandatory kit from running ultras and took with me a headtorch, high viz, and base layer from the start. I had a drop bag at 112k with the same in, and also had a third set with Graeme so there was almost no chance of me not finishing due to kit issues. Others ran with nothing but a water bottle and their headtorches magically appeared despite being nowhere near a crewing point when it got dark.
I had grabbed my big head torch from the 100k checkpoint (1945 closure time) and headed towards the sunset. I nearly stopped to take a photo but there were several Spartathlon photo club members so I figured they would take a better photo
The first memory of the night section was the first crew stop where Julia got me my first coffee of the race. Karl had dropped out by here which was a bit of a surprise for me and Kerry was also cheering us on.
Pretty uneventful until checkpoint 31. I signed my first and only autograph of the race. I was so near the back that only the hardiest would still care at this point. A short way down the road, a guy was wobbling all over the shop. He nearly fell in a ditch and I kept an eye on him for a bit.
I was out into the countryside and it was very quiet for a bit. No other runners, no crew cars, no discarded cups/sponges etc so I worried I had missed a turn. I loaded up the GpS which confirmed I was on course with 132km still to go. Damn it not even half way. I knew this but had forgotten
Spartathlon is bit more like a road marathon than trail race in terms of cup etiquette. Throwing a banana skin could get you DQed in a trail race but here some people would just toss cups or whatever on the road side. Not my style and it creates work for the volunteers to clear up afterwards. There were even discarded foil blankets from the mountain onwards.
I was back on track and hooked up with my crew at 112k. I had my emergency drop bag here which I thankfully didn’t need. It was smart to have it at a crew stop as it meant I didn’t have to collect it at the finish and had an extra spare head torch just in case.
It then a long decent down a well lit road to Ancient Nemea. From then on it was pitch black so not much to see there. This was where Hercules killed the Nemean lion.
This also marked the start of the climb to the mountain and beyond. This was pretty slow going with a gentle gradient killing the pace. It was a case of the routine of chipping away for a bit then refuelling at the next aid station. I had started to recognise some the of the crew cars. They would overtake me then pull up at the next station. I could see how I was doing relative to them based on when they would come past
There was a regular Toyota, one with a stupid exhaust you could hear from miles away, and one with a big roof box. It was a case of leapfrog for hours until the mountain base but I did make up a chunk of ground on the boy racer Toyota as it didn’t come past me when I got to one of the aid stations.
The mountain base camp was another key point. I had taken it relatively easy on the climb. I’m not a good uphill runner and didn’t want to burn myself out here. I lost about 20 minutes on cutoff in the 10 miles before the base but was ok with that and made it there for 21:34 versus 22:10 cut off.
There was a lot on here. I did hear a story of a British running getting a massage off a young greek lady. Well she got him set up and when he came round after a few minutes on the table, it was a hairy bloke sorting out his legs.
I didn’t hang around and got cracking on the climb. A lot of the climb is done by the time you get to the checkpoint - but there is still a lot to go and it can be dispiriting looking up. There was one turn in particular where it looked like I had a mountain left to climb.
I got to the top roughly when the cut off for the base passed. It was nice to have a visualisation of the time gap. I didn’t hang around at the top as I wanted to get the descent out of the way. I overtook quite a lot of people on the way down. Apparently it was a lot rougher in previous years - I quite enjoyed the mountain bit which was a nice change for the legs.
I struggled quite a bit after the mountain as it was quite cold and a thick fog. The headtorch reflected off the droplets which made things difficult. It felt like a was running next to a river or sea but there wasn’t anything there
Eventually I got into Nestani where Graeme and Julia were. I put my head down for 6 minutes. I figured 5 minutes sounded too generic and 10 too long. It was great to rest my eyes and regroup for a final push. I was 170km done in under 24 hours but still 75k to go.
It was a bit tricky getting out of town here. The markings were great normally but not obvious in a town centre. There was really only one way so got it eventually.
It was almost dawn but a very foggy and cold. It felt a lot like early morning on the Thames path but on a long straight road. It felt great after a cup of coffee and a micro sleep - I made back the 10 minute stop easily over the next hour. I passed a guy who was struggling with cold and tiredness and must have put 20 minutes on him during this section.
I was very happy with the cold and fog and keen to cut into the distance here. I still had my head torch on well after day break as there were quite a few cars now. I had high viz on as per the rules but a lot of runners didn’t.
Quite a few people were wishing the fog away but I was very happy with it being cold as the sun would come soon enough.
By the next crew point at 193k it was bright sunshine again so the hat went back on, sunscreen was scrounged from James Ellis’s crew and headtorches deposited.
I had caught up with Laura and James who had teamed up to march it in. I was on good form here but spent a bit of time with them. I was last Brit for a quite a bit so was often on my own in the night but had caught up a lot in the morning.
I now had leapfrog with Matthew in his crew car. Laura and Matthew both work for Virgin Atlantic and are a great runner/crew combo. It was nice to get a cheer from Matthew between checkpoints. Apparently Graeme and Julia had done the same earlier when Laura was ahead so they could tell I was catching them up.
The last 50k switches to being on a relatively major road and there was a horrendous 5k climb at a steady 4% gradient. Enough to really knock the pace when combined with the midday sun. Once that was done, there would only be one more before the finish.
It was a pretty uninspiring section with petrol stations for aid stations but each on was a step closer. Eventually the last climb started. It was back to running on a hard shoulder - plenty of room but a low point was an Audi tosser thinking he was a racing driver and cutting the corner on the hard shoulder.
I had almost entirely used aid station food the entire way round. I was drinking a mix of water, coke , and orange juice combined with crisps, peanuts, and random bits and bobs. The orange juice actually worked well - I initially had it by accident thinking it was lucozade (one of the sponsors) and feared for my stomach but the relatively natural taste worked for me in moderation
With about 20k to go, the last climb was complete and we started to descend to Sparta. It would be downhill all the way which was perfect for me as I still had some running in the legs. I had caught back up with Ivor and we walk-ran together for a bit comparing notes on our journey vowing never to do this again.
I managed to get some decent pace so pushed on a starting catching people. I have never seen so many broken people at a race. Some horrendous leans and all sorts of really quite bad walking wounded
It was pretty special to not only be finishing Spartathlon but to be finishing strongly. My race plan was all about hitting a measured achievable pace and I had a tiny bit left in the tank - using all the fuel up too early would have been a disaster.
The pace required is never that bad but it aggregates up. The first 50 miles in 9h30 isn’t too bad but then you have 100 miles in 26 hours. Again that is very manageable but it all adds up. With 50k to go, I had 8 hours to do that which again is fairly straightforward on paper but on the basis that walking is maybe 5-5.5km you still need to do doing a chunk of running late on unless you’ve banked a good amount earlier.
I think that is what drives the DNF rate. Amongst the faster runners, it is maybe a 15% DNF rate but when you only have maybe a 1-2 hour margin, you have limited margin for error so a bad day isn’t a 38 hour finish like I had in GUCR, it is a DNF.
With 5 miles to go, I was getting toward Sparta and cars were beeping horns and people shouting from balconies. I managed to run the last 5 miles in under 55 minutes which was amazing. I ran past Chris and Sir Ian and was almost getting towards mid pack.
I had started my run to the finish a bit early but managed to keep it up all the way into the finish. I regretted not having left a British flag at the last aid station but collected Graeme on the run up to the finish.
The crowds kept building and I thought I was almost there repeatedly but eventually it was the two of us running to the line. No kids on bikes for me but that was ok. The massive cheer from the British team at a bar on the finishing straight made up for it
I thought I had timed it so I had a gap to go straight up to King Leonides but the guy in front was taking loads of photos so I had to wait my turn. It took the spontaneity out but I got my turn eventually.
There was an extra surprise at the finish. I did the whole laurels and water from the river etc and then I was done. Or so I thought. They kept asking if I needed medical help but I was fine (a lot of folks weren’t) but they were very insistent. I figured I could wait a few more minutes for a beer so grabbed a seat
I was then treated to a medical team sorting out my feet and lancing blisters. My feet weren’t too bad for blisters but 36 hours of marination must have been special. I then headed over for a finish line beer - I had gone sub 35 so had an hour to spare.
I managed to cheer in a few more Brits and we had 17 of 22 safely over the line - much better than the race average. I’m very grateful to have the help from Graeme and Julia crewing me, the other members of the Spartathlon team, and the incredible organisation of the ISA. When I finished, I said I would never do it again. But I said the same when I first finished the Thames Path 100…
The next few days were pretty special with the Spartan mile (400 metres) which is can second in a time of 82 seconds, and a couple of dinners plus a day sightseeing in Athens 
.
I’ll do a lessons learned plus hints and tips at some point. I’m still amazed I got round without too much drama. In some ways not knowing too much probably helped me…
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