Day 175 – EU – Greece [Koroni to Kalamata]

15/08/20

49.2km

  From Koroni (Greece) to Kalamata (Greece)

Europe

An extremely hot day on the road towards Kalamata, home of the world famous olives and oil

What a day… I knew it would be a longer run than usual, but I did not know it would also be one of the hottest days on records so far! It’s lucky I did not have much uphill to go through today. I started with 2km up the 100m hill from sea level to the main road – on trails. I watched as the sun rose from behind the mountains, with the sky looking like it was on fire. A sign for the day ahead.

The road was quiet at first, but it being the long weekend of August, it got progressively busier. Again, I was not lucky with finding shade. I was either running by fields of olive trees or green fields of vegetables – no tall trees in sight. As always in intense heat, my breaks become closer and closer to each other. Towards the end of the run, I had to stop every 2km to cool down.

As I reached Kalamata, I sat down at the first taverna I spotted on the harbour. I sat in the shade and by the time my meal was served, a puddle had formed underneath my seat! I had planned to go and see the castle, up the hill of Kalamata – but it closes at 3:30pm on Saturday. I had visited it before, and I remember the view from up there was quite beautiful.

Meanwhile I get to enjoy the world famous olives of Kalamata, its olive oil and other delicacies of the region. I shall now get some good rest, it seems the week ahead has got more of these days in store for me. It’s only the beginning!

PS: Today’s run is recorded in two parts as I stopped for lunch at km47.6, with 1.6km remaining post lunch].

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: