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Athens Marathon (Greece) Runner Comments
Back to Athens Marathon (Greece) Information & Reviews
Course 4.2 
Organization 4.3 
Spectators 3.7
Number of comments: 140 [displaying comments 111 to 121]
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Jean Marcey from Palmer, Alaska
(12/2/2004)
"Athens and Apostolos Greek Tours" (about: 2004)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I, too, travelled with Apostolos Greek Tours for the 2004 Athens Classic Marathon. It was an outstanding experience, one I will never forget. The website for Apostolos Greek Tours provided a lot of information that helped me to prepare for my time in Athens. Closer to our departure, Apostolos sent tour participants a 30-page booklet with a detailed itinerary, marathon information, and contact information in Greece. I felt very well informed about what to expect every day while in Athens. By the way, in the booklet, there is a page entitled 'The Art of Travelling' which is a beautiful and important reminder to all of us who venture from our very small corners of the world. I liked the fact that our hotel was not in downtown Athens. It provided us the opportunity to take in the beach and gorgeous views. Our location, combined with a well-planned itinerary and EXCELLENT guides, allowed us to see a lot of the Attica region, and learn much about ancient and modern Greece. The itinerary was the perfect blend of organized tour, free time, and coaching from Jeff Galloway (who is an incredibly nice and thoughtful person, as is his wife, Barbara). As for the marathon itself, again, thanks to Apostolos, the headache of race-day preparations was taken care of for us. Our 'goody' bags and bib numbers were distributed at our hotel. Specific details about the course, timing particulars for those walking the course, and the fantastic finish at historic Panathinaiko Stadium were explained, reducing the anxiety associated with race day. I was truly humbled by the fan support along the way. I'm a back-of-the-pack runner, and there were a lot of folks still out on the course cheering us, even late in the run. Thank you to the people of Athens, Alpha Bank, and Apostolos Greek Tours for making the Athens Classic Marathon truly exceptional. I will happily travel with Apostolos again when I take another run at the Athens Marathon. | |
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K. C. from Anchorage, AK
(12/1/2004)
"Great experience, would like to do again" (about: 2004)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I want to say that I did enjoy myself. Once I got on the plane to come home I had a chance to think about the run, and I would like to do it again. I would run a different race, but love to do it again. I enjoyed meeting Jeff Galloway and recieving running tips from him. I was worried when we ran out of water at the first station, but we had enough for the rest of the race. As far as Apostolos Tours, I think that they did a good job, but improvements can be made. The overall organization of the race was not the best, but if you are prepared for that, you will be fine. I wish that there could have been more spectators. It was surprising that no one was allowed on the course, not even our coaches! | |
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R. H. from UK
(12/1/2004)
"Great Olympic Opportunity" (General Comments)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 When else would you have an opportunity to run on a course that the Olympics were just run on? That is why I did it. My goal was to just finish in a Boston qualifying time. Turns out the course wasn't even remotely as hard as it looked on TV. I kept waiting for it to get hard and it never did. Granted I did run conservatively about 20 seconds per kilometer slower than what I trained at, but the last 10K was cake. People were on the side lines yelling, "Bravo!" Drawbacks were: no food during or at the end, so my advice stash some in your drop bag for afterwards and carry what you need for during. What is the big deal about going on a tour? I went on my own. Look on the internet to find a hotel, you can use public transportation to go anywhere, most people spoke English. All the signs were in English and Greek. | |
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R. H. from London, England
(12/1/2004)
"Not as hard as it looked..." (about: 2004)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 On Friday (Nov 5), I flew in on a British Airways flight from London and then we took the bus for 2.90 Euros per person ? one hour on the number 95 bus and we had to stand the whole way. We stayed at the Hilton, which was about a 15-20-minute walk straight down from the stadium where the marathon ended. The Hilton was very nice and we got a pretty good deal, we thought: only 103 euros a night. The host hotel, was over twice as expensive and a little further to walk. We walked over there and picked up our packets. They gave nice t-shirts in different sizes, not just one-size-doesn?t-fit-all, like London. And they gave us a towel, keychain, and a lapel pin. That is pretty generous compared to the other European races I have been in. The next day after arriving, we took the metro for 70 cents (euro) per ride and went to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon from a distance as everything was pretty much fenced off with people guarding stuff, so you couldn?t get close enough to touch anything. They had a museum on the grounds, which we went through, but you can?t take pictures with a flash or pose in front of stuff, and I don?t know why. There were a lot of runners there that should have been resting on the day before the marathon. My legs were killing me by the time we got back to the hotel, so I rested a while then we went over to the Divani Caraval Hotel and ate pasta at the free pasta party. They didn?t check anything. Anyone off the street could have walked in and ate free cold pasta while standing up, as there were no tables and chairs to sit on. I have to admit I was very afraid of running in that marathon after watching it on TV and seeing Paula quit. I am not a good uphill runner, but I wanted to run a fall marathon in Europe and since the Olympics were just held there, the only decision was if I was willing to accept a slower time ? obviously I was. My plan was to train at the same pace I did for Paris, but to actually run the marathon at a slower pace until the last 10K, because I knew the torturous hills would be over at that point. So, wouldn?t you know it in the last 10K, my quads were killing me, but I was so happy to be done with all the ascents, that I actually ran my last 10K faster than my first 10K. Oh, and those hills were nothing like what they looked like on TV. I kept waiting for them to get hard and they never really did; I did slow by about 30 seconds on a few of the kilometers, but I don?t think any were over a 5% grade and they never really seemed to be that long. I actually think I could have run closer to my training pace and still been fine. Anyway, it was a relatively small marathon, only about 3,000 people, which is tiny compared to Paris and London, my last two marathons. It was held on the same day as the NY Marathon, that Paula did finish and win. I knew there was nothing wrong with her. I can understand melting in the heat. Luckily I don?t think it got over 70 degrees. They bussed us out to Marathona then we kind of just stood around and waited for the race to start. The first 3K, you could smell someone burning trash. That?s real good for the lungs. They had pretty frequent water stops with bottles, but not the kind with a spout. They didn?t have any food (oranges, bananas, or gels) on the course, but in the later stages they did have Powerade in bottles. They did have port-a-potties (only 1) about every 5K. When we finished, they gave us a medal and more water and juice, no food though. Afterwards, we kind of hung around and took some pictures of the stadium with a disposable camera we stashed in our clothes drop bag then walked back and hurriedly checked out. We just went and ate at a little café close to the hotel then took the bus back to the airport as we waited for our plane to spend the rest of the week on the island of Crete. | |
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Cindy Roberts from Atlanta, Georgia
(11/25/2004)
"Absolutely Amazing" (about: 2004)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 What an awesome experience!!! This was my second full marathon as a walker & I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I am well traveled around the U.S., but as for being international waters, I am extremely new. This was my first trip outside of the States and thanks to Paul, Jill and Apostle Tours, my mom and I had the best time. This was her first international experience as well. Jill and Paul were great as far as giving advice of what to do, where to go and what to avoid. Paul is very knowledgable of the area. The hotel was an older hotel that offered charm & a true Greek experience. I traveled to Greece with the Joints in Motion fundraising group of the Arthritis Foundation and a Galloway trained walker. The early start not only allowed me to finish within the time limit, but gave me an opportunity to watch the front runners finish when there was a big crowd in the stadium and watch my teammates come in. I highly recommend only doing this marathon with Paul, Jill and Apostle Tours. It will be the best experience of your lifetime. Thank you so much to Paul, Jill, Jeff Galloway, the Arthritis Foundation and all the supporters there for this trip of a lifetime. Our group was at least 25 people & not a single person regretted the trip or had any complaints. Check out Apostle Tours and make sure they are your tour guide when you do this awesome race. It will be the adventure of a lifetime. | |
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Kevin Cunningham from Atlanta, GA, USA
(11/22/2004)
"Athens Marathon & Apostolos Tours" (about: 2004)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 Athens Marathon (Greece)s
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 In rebuttal to Kelli of Anchorage, I have run this marathon for the last fours years using Apostolos Tours and have not encountered the issues she alleges. Apostolos tours is the only American tour agency recognized by the Greek government's sporting agency, SEGAS, and Paul Samaras has a long term relationship with them. The offical web site specifically mentions the strict 6 hour limit. However, Apostolos Tours has a special agreement with SEGAS allowing for walkers to start earlier than the 8:30 official start; but only walkers can use this early start (to avoid any chip timing problems); any runner who thinks they can finish in 6 hours is asked to start with everyone else. Kelli finished in 5+ hours with a 40 min. delay; she's a runner, not a walker. Paul Samaras & Apostolos Tours was honored with an award by SEGAS for its contributions to Greek sport the same weekend as the race. Also, SEGA chose Apostolos Tour's runners last year as participants in testing the Athens Olympic's marathon security and transportation logistics. In addition, Jeff Galloway (former Olympian marathoner, founder of the Galloway marathon training program and Runner's World columnist) is an invitee and helps coach the runners. These are not the attributes of sub-standard travel agency. This is THE 'classic' marathon. It is also one of the hilliest marathon courses you'll ever run (the middle 13 miles are all up hill). Don't go expecting to set a PR; run this race so you can finish in the 1896 Olympics stadium, just like Deena Drossin Caster and Keb Mebfleghi did this last Olympics. See you in 2005 !!! | |
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M. B. from Sirault, Belgium
(11/12/2004)
"The good, bad, and ugly of it all." (about: 2004)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Good: The original course! It might not be the most scenic, or pass by the Acropolis or some such touristy thing, but would you want it to? This is history... live it. The finisher's medal is very nice. Bad: Only water at the finish for those +4:30 hours. The faster ones got fruit drinks as well. No sign of food. I would normally expect more for my almost-$100 registration fee (although the materials did clearly say that only water and drinks were available at the finish). Ugly: Expect some frustration (at the expo, getting onto the buses, etc.) and you won't be disappointed. You're in a Mediterranean country. Lessons learned: (1) Do things early. Arrive early for the expo and bus to start-line, use porta-potties early, etc. Beat the crowd. (2) Read the maps & handouts given carefully. At the start, there was a large changing facility towards the back of the track which many people completely missed. They were too busy queued up for the porta-potties to take advantage of a luxurious facility (with bathrooms!). (3) It's a challenging course. Expect warm Mediterranean weather and ascents for the first 32km. The last 10km, you lose the ~250m height that you climbed. (4) For the budget-minded, this marathon *can* be done without a tour group. It took a bit of courage to look beyond the tour operator's website and arrange everything on my own. It's quite do-able, though. Coincidentally, I stayed at the same hotel as the tour group. I should add that I didn't see anyone from the tour group that was not enjoying the experience. They certainly paid a premium for it, though. The tour operator's website makes it seem like you'll be completely lost without them. This is hardly the case for those familiar with logistics of marathons and unafraid of using public transport (very reliable!) or renting a car in a big city. If you want Athens specific 'do-it-yourself' tips, write me an email. Beyond saving myself $$$, I preferred the freedom of being able to go and see what I wanted, rather than being tethered to a group of tourists. (5) Pack finish-line food into your bag. The bag pick-up was problem free. Also carry gels or other isotonics during the race in case you run into a water stop that's run out of isotonics (I can't remember which one, but this happened too.) | |
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A. H. from Paris, France
(11/9/2004)
"Every marathoner should run it once" (about: 2004)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 After all the negative comments I'd read about the organization I was pleasantly surprised. It was very well organized, my only criticism is that given this is *the original*, the event lacks a bit of spark. I don't feel the historical component was plugged enough, I'm sure they could build it up a bit more. Otherwise though, the organization was faultless. The course is a hard uphill slog from 10k to 30k but not as bad as I was expecting. In fact the change to a downhill gradient is just what you need at 30k, so it works well psychologically. Not much in the way of crowds but then so soon after the Olympics they've probably had enough. The finish in the Panathinaiki Stadium is brilliant. There is so much history in this course that you just have to run here at least once. | |
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A. D. from Toronto, Canada
(11/2/2004)
"A Historic and Lifetime Achievement" (about: 2003)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 This marathon was as organized as anything else done in Greece. You must appreciate Mediterranean Europeans to understand this. The course was very challenging and not meant to be run as a PB type of race. Finishing in Panathanaikos Stadium is breathtaking and worth all the hills during the race. It is a must do for any marathoner who appreciates the history of the sport and doesn't mind a challenging race. | |
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P. B. from Wolverhampton,England
(9/29/2004)
"It's held in Greece!" (about: 1995)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Athens Marathon (Greece)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Come on guys, tough run and course, but would you really want not want to run this?! My worst moment was seeing the police with their sidearms so nonchalant at Mile 23. You will not find a better feeling than running into THAT stadium, COME ON!!!!!!!!!! |
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