Spartathlon = 153 MILES race hosted by Greece since 1983
Goal is to complete the course in 36hrs!
Runners run from Athens to Sparta....insane!!!
Not just any jack & jill runner can sign up for this race...they only have 350 spots
According the official website, the qualifications to register for the race are
a. Having concluded an at least 100kl race in less than 10.30 hours time.
b. Having participated in “SPARTATHLON” before and having passed NESTANI (172kl) in time less than 24.30 hours.
c. Having finished the “SPARTATHON” race
d. Having participated and finished, regardless of time, in an over 200kl race non stop.
e. Have finished in time the race NEMEA-OLYMPIA within 28 hours.
The above conditions are valid, if what is required has taken place within the three (3) last years, including the year of the “SPARTATHLON” race in which the athlete wishes to participate.
There are many things on my bucket list that have to do with fitness challenges but this isnt one of them. I'm not even going to THINK about it.
The name that stood out to me?
Elizabeth Hawk = 3rd place.....RESPECT!
She finished the race in 27hrs 06mins 17seconds
What challenges do runners have to face?
"...rough tracks and muddy paths (often it rains during the race), crosses vineyards and olive groves, climbs steep hillsides and, most challenging of all, takes the runners on the 1,200 meter ascent and descent of Mount Parthenio in the dead of night. This is the mountain, covered with rocks and bushes, on which it is said Pheidippides met the god Pan.....The ascent is marked out by a trail of battery-driven colored flashing lights and its challenge is a trial for human stamina and mental strength. Over the mountain the last sections are no less energy sapping and exhausting for the runners as they follow a road that winds up and down hills before descending into Sparta. Even the finest athletes start hallucinating as they cover these final stages. Having lost all sense of time and reality, they are "on automatic" as they push their weary bodies on towards the finishing line at the statue of Leonidas. At most, only about a third of the runners who leave Athens end the course in Sparta...."
What crazy things are on your bucket list?
Are any of them related to fitness? Perhaps climbing the summit of a well known mountain? Running a marathon? Swimming/sailing across an ocean?
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