Athens Marathon

Glenski

Just thought I'd post my opinions on the Athens Marathon in the event someone wanted to find a little info before deciding to run the race or not.

I found it quite difficult myself to get info prior to the race.

The Athens Marathon is exceptionally well organised event.
The only thing I could fault is that they don't have pacers.
I guess they feel it's not a run that people will do, to achieve a PB.

The fact that you get a travel card that gives you 6 days of free public transport was amazing. The transport systems over there are safe, frequent and user friendly. Clearly a legacy of the Olympic funding.

I recommend staying in the Plaka, Monastiriki or Syntagma areas, but all areas are what I would consider a short walk to get to.

An unforgettable finish to a marathon and a race steeped in a huge amount of history. This is a must do race.

A beautiful city to sight-see in, and the abundant restaurants serve amazing food at incredible prices. You could get flights and accommodation for 5/6 nights on a budget of €500 comfortably. I could eat like a king for those 5/6 days for €150.

village runner

Glenski wrote: »

Just thought I'd post my opinions on the Athens Marathon in the event someone wanted to find a little info before deciding to run the race or not.

I found it quite difficult myself to get info prior to the race.

The Athens Marathon is exceptionally well organised event.
The only thing I could fault is that they don't have pacers.
I guess they feel it's not a run that people will do, to achieve a PB.

The fact that you get a travel card that gives you 6 days of free public transport was amazing. The transport systems over there are safe, frequent and user friendly. Clearly a legacy of the Olympic funding.

I recommend staying in the Plaka, Monastiriki or Syntagma areas, but all areas are what I would consider a short walk to get to.

An unforgettable finish to a marathon and a race steeped in a huge amount of history. This is a must do race.

A beautiful city to sight-see in, and the abundant restaurants serve amazing food at incredible prices. You could get flights and accommodation for 5/6 nights on a budget of €500 comfortably. I could eat like a king for those 5/6 days for €150.

Course description ??
When is it on ? How hard is it ??

Glenski

It's the original marathon course from Greek mythology.

So you start in the town of Marathon and you finish in Athens.
Buses ship you out at 05:00 in the morning.

The bus trip out is all down hill!!

First 5k is flat, the next 15k is up hill - nothing too drastic.

From 20k to 32k all uphill. This 12k is very difficult due to gradiant.

Once you hit the 32k mark it's all down hill to the finish.

Don't get carried away when you've run the best part of 32k uphill. your body takes a while to adjust. The last 10k downhill was as tough as any other part of the race.

The finish makes everything worthwhile. Great finishing mile. Finishing in a packed Olympic stadium - nothing like it.

Glenski

It's run the 10th November.

Normally around 20 - 24 degrees.

However there's normally a nice breeze to keep you cool. It gets hot after 12:00

RubyK

Athens is definitely one I'd love to do. Thanks for the report Afaik, there are no direct flights from Dublin to Athens, from Oct to Apr? What flights did you use?

Glenski

Yeah, this caught me out when it came to booking.

I got Ryanair flights return to Luton for about €30
National Express Bus Transfers from Luton Airport to Heathrow - €20 ( €10 each way)
British Airway Flights direct to Athens - €170 return

Because it's off season it's not expensive, and if you book earlier then I did there are savings to be made on my prices above.

London flight to Athens is 3hrs on the button.

RubyK

Cheers for that glenski, definitely one to consider for the future.

Aimman

I was about to start a thread on this for 2014, but found this one which has some info already which might be useful.

Anybody else heading over for this one in November?