Reading the About page, you can tell I am quite attached to the first marathon I ever ran – and for a reason: In the space of a few months I had turned unfit me into a runner, I had suffered and recovered from many of injuries that go with that title, I had persisted with the training and finished my first marathon in under 4 hours collecting in the process a tidy sum for my chosen charity (WDCS, the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society). I had never felt as proud as I did on that day, and completing that transformation in front of my friends, sister and girlfriend made it all the more special.
And the quality of the event, the organisation, its volunteers the public participation showed everything that is / can be great about Greece at a time (November 2011) when there were very few good news to come out of the motherland.
So… if I have so many fond memories of it, why risk it by doing it again? If there is no result that can make me feel any prouder than I felt in 2011?
Well… because it is ‘my’ marathon. It is home – even if I’ve only run it once.
Because it is The Marathon. The same route (give or take a bit) that was run in 492 BC by the Athenian messenger and that was run in the first marathon race to be ever held (on the occasion of the first modern Olympics in 1896).
Because I want to run another marathon so I can put behind me the pain I felt in Rome.
Because I want an excuse to talk about running again…
…and because this year I want to be part of that party!
(*) “I return to the south”, also the title of a song by Astor Piazzola; ignore the upside-down sky in the lyrics, read bouzouki instead of bandoneon and you get the idea!
Running the Marathon. Again. 