Attica

Athens → Sparta → AthensOpen in Maps Thursday, 19 November 2026 road

Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta to ask for help before the battle of Marathon, and then he ran back. This race keeps both halves: 485 km on the ancient road, from Athens to the statue of Leonidas and back, in 98 hours on open roads. You leave at 06:00 on a Thursday in late November, in the dark, along the Sacred Way to Eleusis. You must reach Sparta within 43 hours, and you climb Mount Artemisio twice, to 1,227 m. A runner near the limit spends four nights on the road, with frost possible on the Arcadian plateau. For the tenth edition, past finishers may go on 40 km to Marathon: 525 km in 100 hours.