Day 180 – EU – Greece [Kosmas to Tyros]

20/08/20

47.3km

  From Kosmas (Greece) to Tyros (Greece)

Europe

Down the mountain, towards the Aegean Sea – and meeting familiar friendly faces on the way

I could not leave as early as I had planned today for a very good reason: the mountain was absolutely pitch dark! I waited on my doorstep till I could see a little bit ahead. I was ready to leave about 6:15am. And as I ran down the mountain I had the beautiful reward of one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever seen. The sun went up like a big red balloon and I must have snapped a thousand pictures before it finally lit up and shone its yellow light. None of the pics truly show it as it was though. But close enough!

I enjoyed about 30km of downhill towards the town of Leonidio. These 30km were absolute bliss, no cars, only goats – and a surprise awaited me as I heard the chants of Popes around the 15th kilometer. I looked all around till I spotted a monastery, perched up the mountain: Moni Elonis. So, with the sounds of goats’ bells, birds and popes’ chants, down the mountain I ran.

As I reached Leonidio, I faced another 18km of rolling road along the coast, being by now by the Aegean Sea. A few kilometers in, I saw a familiar face up ahead, walking towards me. Stan Fijnaut! One of the greatest mountain runners of Greece, Stan used to attend (and win) the Athens Mountains running series I organised back in 2009-2011. I could see he was following me on Strava but this was a very pleasant surprise to meet him on the road. Hopefully we’ll meet again next week when I run across Athens.

As I approached Tyros, a man pulled up by my side on a motorcycle: Nigel! Nigel Copage used to live in Athens with his wife Wendy, and we met on a couple of walks and runs. He now lives in Tyros and contributes to a few local papers. My friend Lisa had tipped him off about my running by his place today. He gave me the first official photo shoot of the world run! I didn’t look my best, being drenched in sweat and having run about 45km by then, but was happy nonetheless.

In all, this was a fabulous day on the road. Again. I am looking forward to tomorrow and the rest day ahead, meeting with friends and being now so close to Athens. How wonderful this journey is…

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: