Autumn Update #2

This is all about 2 Marathons.

The first one, 3 weeks after running the Berlin Marathon, was the Amsterdam Marathon. It was a cold and breezy day where I spent much of the time prior to the start hiding in the doorway of a Café trying to keep warm. However all was OK once the race started and was pleased with my time of 3h 58m, with a negative split where the second half of the race was faster than the first.

The second one, 3 weeks after the Amsterdam Marathon, was the Athens Marathon. The course is basically that of the first Marathon of the modern Olympiad in 1896, starting in Marathon and finishing in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. This Marathon is the ‘original’ and had not been included in this form as part of the 1896 Athens Olympics, we would not have had the Marathon as a race. This is the stadium that was the one that was restored in 1896 from what was left of the original stadium from about 2000 years ago. This made the finish uniquely special and quite a reward after completing the challenge of up to 1500 feet of uphill running, with high temperatures & humidity – there were reports suggesting that it was >30 degrees C at some points on the course.