Day 193 – EU – Greece [Thiva to Livadeia]

02/09/20

45km

  From Thiva (Greece) to Livadeia (Greece)

Europe

A very pleasant flat run in good company, with the Thiva Running Club providing 5 runners and 1 support vehicle

Waiting in front of the hotel at 6am, I found 4 runners of the Thiva Running Club: Margarita, Giorgos, Kostas and Sotiria – as well as Panagiotis who was driving the support car. I was expecting the group of runners to tag along for 10km or so and then turn back with the vehicle. At km9, Sotiria left us as she had to get to work. But – to my surprise, the 3 other runners kept running alongside me.

At km19 we reached the city of Aliartos and the vice-mayor, Tasos, was waiting for us in his local running attire, the bright orange shirt of the Aliartas Runners. He accompanied us for about 6km and said his goodbyes. Giorgos hopped into the support vehicle at km21. That left Margarita and Kostas running with me.

Their company was perfect. They kept up with my pace the whole way and never slowed me down or tried to outrun me. Kostas is a long distance runner used to going for very long runs and I could see he was very comfortable. Margarita had never run further than a marathon and she has had no specific training for long distance this summer. As we chatted away past the 40th kilometer, I discovered she is… 66 years-old! Absolutely unbelievable!

We ran 6:20 per kilometer the whole way, running the 45km in 4hr45mn (with an added 30mn of breaks). And it was quite a hot day too. Margarita talked a lot throughout the run. She shared her personal memories of the places we ran through. Picking up cotton in the fields with her mum as a youngster. Her dad’s village, waterfalls and hidden secret trails. I was afraid she would tire herself out by talking too much. But she was a happy chatterbox. She did her longest day of running ever and believe me when I say she was still very fresh when we finished. I want to be like Margarita when I am 66!

The Thiva Running Club had only heard about my running through their area yesterday morning, via an article published on a local running platform. Panagiotis (Panos) took it in his hands and reached out to the local running club immediately. To have come up with such support, company and encouragement in such a short time is quite remarkable. The friends you gain on the road…

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: