Scott Jurek to defend Spartathlon title; Run in the footsteps of Pheiddipides

Posted September 19, 2007 at 04:49 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: Destinations, International, News, Ultramarathons

In a recent blog post, America’s top ultra-elite runner Scott Jurek writes about his plans to defend his title at the 25th annual Spartathlon. 

The Spartathlon is a legendary, 152.85 mile (246 km) ultramarathon race held in Greece since 1983 between Athens and Sparta.  Now in it’s 25th year, the Spartathlon will take place from September 28-29, when in excess of 300 international runners will participate in the classic event.

In 2006, Jurek became the first American man to ever win the Sparathlon; crossing the finish line in a time of 22:52:18.

In his blog entry, Jurek writes:

I’m happy to officially announce I will be going back to Spartathlon this year. It is coming up quickly and I have been able to get in excellent training upon returning from France. Valmir Nunes of Brazil, a previous Spartathlon winner, is in top shape this year after dropping last year due to injury. Another previous winner, Jens Lucas of Germany, will also be running, but possibly slightly tired after a stellar second place finish at UTMB. Markus Thalmann of Austria is one more past champion helping to stack the field. American 24 Hour record holder Mark Godale is also in great form this year and I expect many more great competitors to be ready to give it their all.

This year, Jurek will once again try and challenge Sparathlon icon Yiannis Kouros.  Kouros won the inaugural Spartathlon and still holds the record time at 20:25:00. Kouros competed in four Spartahlons, won all four and holds the four fastest times ever recorded. In 2005, he decided to trace the steps of Pheiddipides completely and ran - out of competition - the Athens-Sparta-Athens distance.

To read Jurek’s entire blog post, please visit: www.scottjurek.com/blog