As a marathon runner, I have always wanted to run the Athens Classic Marathon at some point in my life. It just seemed appropriate to be there on the same course where it all began in 490BC when the armies of Greece stopped the Persian invasion and Pheidippides made his famous run to announce their victory in Athens. It was certainly in my bucket list like so many other trips and experiences with no particular priority. All of that changed in January at the Houston Marathon expo when I found out that the 2010 Athens Marathon would be the 2500th anniversary of the famous battle. That sealed the deal and I knew that 2010 had to be the year for me.
It turns out that Houston and Athens have a marathon exchange program with a winner being selected for the trip out of all the sub-4 hour finishers. I didn’t win the drawing, but I did sign up all the same. What followed was months of planning, coordination, and training which culminated on October 24th with a flight to Greece to meet up with a group of Houston marathon runners for an eight day tour of the country and entry into the race itself. It sounded perfect and Alida and I hopped the plane.
Greece is a country of roughly 11 million people and about 4 million of them live in Athens. Greece is also going through some pretty harsh austerity measures right now due to its struggling economy and as such there is a fair bit of social unrest. Nonetheless, tourism is a major industry and we never felt unwelcome.
We opted to arrange our own flight instead of the tour’s flight. The cost was about the same, but the flight schedule was more favorable. The downside of this was that we’d be traveling alone and it was up to us to get from the airport to the first night’s hotel to meet up with everyone. The metro was on strike so we took the bus. It ended up not being a big deal at all and by the time we left, we had become very familiar and handy with the bus system in Athens.
We settled in and met up with the rest of the group that evening. The first order of business was meeting the fellow travelers and the travel agent who would be accompanying us for the entire trip. It turns out our hotel has a rooftop restaurant with an incredible view of the Parthenon. It is also located only a block from Syntagma square, where the parliament building is. After introductions, we struck out together to walk through the market district to dinner at a cozy restaurant. Traditional Greek food was to be the fare for the entire trip, which is funny because it’s not really anything I have not had before—it was just usually better. This trip has definitely given me an appreciation for Moussaka.
We got back late and discovered what would be a recurring theme for our vacation: start early, finish late. That’s great for maximizing the Greek experience, but it’s pretty lousy for pre-race rest. Oh well, I’ll rest later.
Monday morning began our first full day in Greece. We all gathered bright and early in the lobby for a bus ride to the harbor, where we boarded a small cruise ship for a day-long cruise around the nearby islands with stops in Poros, Hydra, and Aegina. The water was rough going out and a few of us got some mild seasickness. Thankfully the water calmed as the day went on. Poros looked pretty, but we were only there for half an hour so we didn’t accomplish much other than a scenic walk up and down the waterfront.
Boarding the ship, we had lunch on the way to Hydra Island, where we got to spend considerably more time. Hydra was wonderfully beautiful in a postcard kind of way. You had the deep blue water and white-walled houses lining the hills above. The harbor area was fun as well with donkey rides and a WWII fort to explore as well as a marketplace with windy back alleys. We broke up into little groups and spent an hour or so wandering around taking pictures and exploring where the streets went. It was fun to cross paths repeatedly with others from our group who were doing the same thing. Finally, after many photos and a few trinkets, we got back on the boat for the ride to Aegina. While here, we opted for a small bus tour of the historic island with stops at the ancient Temple of Apollo, the Church of Saint Nektarios, and a pistachio farm. Aegina is famous for its pistachios and as a pistachio lover, I simply couldn’t resist checking out what some people call the best pistachios in the world. I have to admit they were pretty darn good.
Finally, we got back on the ferry and headed back to Athens. After a bus ride to the hotel, we decided to take a walk into the market in search of some shopping and a good restaurant. Alida and I went out with four others from our group and ended up at a place called Tepina that had a great covered outdoor area. We ended up sitting and chatting and sipping wine until about midnight when we called it quits and wandered back to the hotel.
One of the best things about this group trip was the fact that we immediately had two big things in common—we were all into marathons and we were all from Houston. This means that we instantly had things to talk about at all times. As we got to know each other over the course of a week, we developed a great mesh of personalities and never really clashed at all even when we got tired and cranky.
Tuesday morning brought an early day in the hotel lobby with all of our bags as we would begin our three day road tour of Greece. We were introduced to our tour guide, Konstantina, who went by Tina (pronounced with a soft T like “Dina”) and Demitrios our driver. Tina had a great sense of humor and a limitless capacity for going into as much detail as we wanted on anything we saw along the way. Either that or she was really good at making things up on the spot. Just kidding! It turns out there is a very vigorous tour guide school process that takes years to complete.
We started with a four hour drive to Delphi, which is in the mountains west of Athens. Delphi is well known for its ruins and the oracle of Delphi, who sat up on a rock and inhaled fumes coming from out of the ground until she got high and predicted the future. The ruins at Delphi are truly massive and ancient. There were even some small tunnels that were unmarked, but also unblocked and a few of us with particularly adventurous ideas grabbed Alida’s trusty flashlight and squeezed into them. They twisted and turned and popped out in other places around the ruins. It was a lot of fun exploring the place above and below ground.
Another noteworthy thing about all of the ruins around Greece is that they are completely overrun with feral cats, dogs, or sometimes both. We first noticed it at Delphi, but time and time again there would be a pack of dogs or cats at any given ruins. I guess tourists keep feeding them so they hang around. We had a good time in Delphi, but unfortunately the weather turned on us and a thick rainy fog rolled in so we took shelter in the nearby museum, where many impressive ancient sculptures were on display.
After Delphi, we stopped off for lunch at a restaurant in a small town to wait out the fog where we were rewarded with a great view of the valley below. Back on the bus, the two-hour drive to Olympia turned into a five hour affair. We all kept a mostly good attitude, although Tina never could come to terms with the fact that athletes hydrate differently and as a result, we need more restroom stops. I think this detail mystified and frustrated her throughout the week, but hey, it’s just how we are. The really unfortunate thing about the foggy weather is the fact that we could not get a good view of the bridge across the gulf of Corinth at Rio. It’s a modern suspension bridge and it’s the only link (aside from the tiny isthmus of Corinth) between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesian peninsula. After crossing the bridge, we had another hour or so to get to Olympia. We arrived late that evening—long after dark—and had dinner and went to bed. This was a shame, because our hotel at Olympia looked like one of the neatest places we stayed at during the whole trip and I would have liked to have stayed there for a while.
On Wednesday morning, I realized I was getting a bit stir crazy and wanted to stretch my legs a little. I met up with Bob and Gustavo at 5:30AM for a pre-dawn run in Olympia. When the sun came up, we grabbed breakfast and headed out to the ruins. Olympia is an amazing town. The ruins at Olympia were not only the home of the ancient Olympic Games, but also the Temple of Zeus, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sadly, the temple was destroyed long ago by fire and all that remains are some buildings and columns, but the complex is still massive and Tina told us all about the 35’ high ivory and gold statue of Zeus sitting on his throne surrounded in his massive hall by marble columns. We also saw the stadium where the original Olympic Games were held in ancient times. We went to the track and all of us decided it was only appropriate to take a lap down and back on the ancient race grounds. After the ruins, we headed to the museum at Olympia, which was full of very detailed sculptures including Hermes of Praxiteles holding an infant Dionysus.
That’s a lot to read so far and it's only the first half of the week, so I’ll pick up part two in the next post, along with another to cover the marathon race itself.
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