October 7, 2018: Panathenaic Stadium

This was one of my favorite stops in Athens.  The stadium was originally built in 330 BC, but has been rebuilt and renovated a few times.  It was the site of the first modern olympic games in 1896, and it's the ending point for the Greece Marathon each year.   I've never been a huge competitor, but I often forget I had a few good years of competitive running in my past.  Competing at the state level in high school and running competitively in college is something I can be proud of (who cares that it was over 15-16 years ago)!  And having 4 finished marathons (one being close to Boston qualifying time) is a big accomplishment.  Being in the stadium made me proud to be an athlete, even an old washed up one.  :)

I have said that I was done running marathons.  While I LOVE the actual marathon experience, I hate the training.  It takes up so many hours of your life, and your body is sore every day for 3 months.  But being here, at the site of the very first marathon, made me want to run this one.   If you don't know the legend of the first marathon, I'll give you a very brief version.  Greece was at war with the Persians.  Pheidippides was a Greek soldier fighting in the battle of Marathon.  Greece was victorious over the Persians, and Pheidippides was sent to Athens to tell of the victory.  The legend says that he ran from Marathon to Athens (26.2 miles), exclaimed to the officials, "we won!" then collapsed and died.  Nobody really knows how historically accurate the story is, but from that, the Marathon race was born and every year there is a race from Marathon to Athens to commemorate this first run.  I'm going to do it.  Even if it means training by running laps and laps and laps around the school campus.  Worth it!  Then I can be done for good. :)