Taking it to the end

Read in The Economist there is something called the "Spartathlon" -- an uber-extreme-extreme version of a marathon.  I mean, after you do a marathon or 10, what's next?  This is next.  It's a 245 km run -- almost six consecutive marathons -- that has to be completed within 36 hours.  Of the 310 who started this past September, only 72 finished.

The 30th, the Spartathlon was inspired by Pheidippides, an Athenian who made the journey to Sparta in 490 B.C.  His mission was to ask the Spartans for their help in fighting the invading Persians.  Apparently, he reached Sparta the day after leaving Athens, hence the 36-hour time-limit to finish.

"Vomit, bleeding nipples and hallucinations.  Why would anyone in their right mind run the Spartathlo?", asks The Economist.  Why indeed?  Even competitors who trained by running 10-12 hours a day didn't even make it to ancient Corinth.  Those who drop out are retreived by "the death bus, which slowly makes its way to Sparta, stopping to pick up non-finishers and occasionally to let off passengers to throw up". 

At the finish, where the destination is a statue of King Leonidas, leader of the 300 Spartans who died defending the pass of Thermopylae, runners touch the feet of the king.  But euphoria is fleeting.  "Within a few minutes, joints start to seize up.  After the race, the town resembles the set of a zombie film, as participants lumber slowly around on legs that will not bend.  Toenails have been lifted clean off, great chunks of dead skin cling to the soles of feet.  And the itch to do it all over again soon appears.  The end of a very tough event can leave a runner feeling unmoored."  Please. 

The difference is that Pheidippides had to run back again.

I hope no one I know ever gets this itch.