For the long distance runner, the Spartathlon is a kind of Matterhorn. It has the ingredients of an epic: a finish line that stretches a long, long way from the start; 153 miles, almost six consecutive marathons. There is a big mountain at the 100 mile mark, a big city at the start, a big cold night in the middle, and a big percentage of runners who don’t make it. The race has international prestige and gathers runners from all corners of the world. To top it off, the course claims a remarkable history. According to Herodotus, in 490 B.C the Athenian runner Philippides left Athens and arrived in Sparta the next day. His legendary run was for the purpose of asking the Spartans for help against the invading Persians before the conflict that would lead to the battle of Marathon. It was a run to save democracy, a run to save the foundations of Western culture.

There is nothing else like Spartathlon. Last year, I ran it for the first time. It was an incredible experience, and I knew almost before it even started that I would have to come back. It is, indeed, The Greatest Footrace on Earth. Last year, I set an aggressive best-case goal of under 30 hours. I had some rough patches, but managed to pull it together and run 29:35, which I was absolutely thrilled with. Only a small handful of Americans have ever run under 30 hours.

The truth is, Spartathlon was never a "dream" race for me, more like a "eh, that might be interesting some day" kind of race. But my friend Bob Hearn ran it last year and was enamored with it and my running partner Dennis was also quite interested in it and spent time talking about how cool it would be to do. So when the application period opened in January and Bob told me I had till May before I had to commit any money, I thought I would throw my name in the hat. Well, that was a very slippery slope! Sending in an application meant spending time on the website and learning a bit more about the race, so that by the time the lottery results came out, there was no way I was turning down my spot. (I met the auto-qualification standards by being at least 20% faster than the regular qualification standard of 24 hrs for a 100M run, so it wasn't exactly a shock that I got in, but I was still super excited to see the "Congratulations, you have been accepted to Spartathlon" email!). Well, on to Greece!

J’ai beaucoup d’appréhension avant cette course dantesque, c’est la première fois que je me lance sur une distance de 246 km et avec ma maman l’aventure est toujours un peu pimentée (Souvenir de notre première association lors du 100km de Royan en 2012, mémorable) Cette appréhension me fait passer des nuits très courtes avec un petit carnet sur la table de nuit pour marquer des choses que je sais déjà, mais bon on ne se refait pas, c’est souvent le même rituel avant une course.

According to dictionary.com, "the moment of truth" is described as the moment at which one's character, courage, skill, etc., is put to an extreme test. In the civilized world, it's all about being more and more comfortable and we rarely face these moments in our regular lives. When it comes to ultrarunning, they are more common. There are critical moments in every race when you have to make a tough decision such as stopping or going on. I would argue that one of the reasons most of us do this crazy sport is to face those moments as we try to conquer our doubts and insecurities.

In 2007 whilst working full time and attending Uni in the evenings I put on a bit of weight; there just wasn’t time to exercise, or so I thought. I got the shock of my life when my favourite pair of jeans no longer fitted and I decided to do something about it. Ryan Spencer sold me my first pair of running shoes and he was also responsible for planting the seed of ultra-running in my brain even before I had set foot on the store's treadmill…

I’ve just hobbled up some steps onto a temporary wooden platform to take this photo. My feet hurt. They hurt a lot. Sarah, Mark and Dan are below taking their own pictures. I need a minute to myself. I’ve started crying. My race finished 21 hours ago, when I ran up to this statue, grasping the left foot in a sweaty embrace. However it is only now, when we have stopped off in Sparta before driving back to Athens, that the magnitude of the achievement and the effort it required is sinking in. I’m completely drained, not just physically but mentally and emotionally.

Pablo Barnes es un atleta argentino que desde hace años vive en Italia, país en el cual ha conseguido grandes resultados en las carreras de Ultra-trail. En 2007 ganó, junto con el gran Marco Olmo, la primera edición de la Ultra Trail La Via Marenca (90.2km).

You see, last year I ran Spartathlon for the first time and finished in 33:47. My first goal was to finish and then to go below under 34 hours, if possible. So, it seems like everything went according to plan, right? Actually, the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Let me start off by saying this is not an easy post to compose. I had fully hoped to be writing a post about successfully completing my Triple Crown of Ultra-Running. I never expected to be staring blankly at my computer dissecting and analyzing what went wrong? Spartathlon is the Ultimate Test of Ultra-running.

While waiting in the queue I scanned each of the nine people in front of me – knowing that less than half of us will reach the finish line and the same applied to the rest of the crowded room of participants.

In 2015 I was blessed to return to the Spartathlon for the 3rd time. For me it was the greatest honor and the culmination of yet another year. I first ran Spartathlon in 2013, then returned in 2014. The exact same race, two very different experiences. In 2013 the race went well and while having some challenges as anybody else in the race,