Welcome, welcome, welcome to Run Kevin Run Dot Com! Just enough time for a quick recap of the race…with more to come later.
Stephanos, a trainer and new hire for Apostolos who was poached from the Athens Marathon organizing committee, gave a course preview and run down last night. He accurately described it as a flat 10k followed by a few inclines before a continuous incline from 18k to 31k. Then from that high point, it was downhill to the finish. That was useful, albeit I didn’t think his “pep talk” thereafter was the most inspirational. He said even though he’s run a number of marathons, he wouldn’t run this one. Maybe when he was 65, he said, and looking to run with his son. I think it was supposed to be congratulatory to us for taking on the challenge… or maybe a means of reinforcing that this wasn’t a course to strive for a PR. But it came across as… well… a parody of every sports movie “coach” speech ever done.
I will say that starting at Marathon and running through the local towns to Athens proper reinforces the idea behind Boston’s layout. Legend tells that Bostonians at the 1896 Games were so impressed with the Olympic marathon that they sought to bring one to Beantown… and thus the fabled Hopinkton to Boyle Street route was born.
The reward for the Athens race is to finish in the Athenian Olympic Games stadium. While these days the venue ccasionally is used for concerts, the ONLY sporting event held there is the Athens Marathon. As I entered the stadium and headed into the final stretch on the track, I was overwhelmed with the experience.
This is where the modern marathon was born; this is where the modern Olympics began. And so, as the John Williams-ish sporting anthems blared over the PA system and the crowds cheered us in, it was as close to the Olympics as I will ever come. I didn’t podium, not by any stretch, but I did finish… and like the 18,000+ runners today, I did “medal.”
We all have won the day.
