Legends of Spartathlon

So happy to be able to interview this podcast with two long time friends and Legends of Spartathlon in every possible way. No strangers to Spartathlon - Ian & James have been to the race every year since 2015 and there was no doubt in their mind that this global pandemic was not going to stop them following their beloved pilgrimage from the Acropolis to Sparta. Hear first hand how Ian & James came up with the idea of “Spartathloff”, without all the usual infrastructure of the race and all the emotional steps that they shared with their new found brother-in-arms - Ektoras. Their adventure will head into Spartathlon folklore. APPLE PODCAST [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/legends-of-spartathlon/id1507193169] : SPOTIFY PODCAST [https://open.spotify.com/episode/5tw44aGNy2o3Rh15laRDsh?si=19di7XP_RiywPs_XxC4ydw]

Eleanor Robinson is without doubt one of the greatest runners and especially ultra-marathon runners of all-time. We were proud as punch to get an opportunity to hear Eleanor share her inspirational stories from being the first female competitor of Spartathlon, to winning World Championships and her constant “will try” approach to anything new in the long-distance mileage world. Whilst there are many great things in the current running world - like mass participation and female athletes winning major races - it is fascinating listening to Eleanor share how her level of training (3 times a day) and especially the “competing versus completing” mentally gives us some idea as to how a majority of the worlds best ultra-marathon times still come from athletes (like Eleanor) who progressed our sport in 1980s.

We loved recording this Legends of Spartathlon episode with legally blind runner Jason Romero. What Jason has already achieved in his ultrarunning career is nothing short of inspirational and what we love about Jason is that he has only just begun. Running any Spartathlon is epic. Coming from across the pond, needing a guide to go the 153 miles with you and navigating all the challenges along the journey is mind-blowing. Listening to Jason share his adventures and how you can get involved made this a fantastic show to make. Cannot wait to run with Jason in the future. So many inspirational quotes from Jason - one of our favourites: “You gotta keep moving. It’s truly epic when you wanna put yourself athletically. That’s 10% of what Spartathlon is - the physical - the personal. 90% of it is GREECE - the countries - the camaraderie. Group of warriors lining up. Everybody is running as hard as they can and head first into the meat-grinder. Train the whole year as this is your A-race….and it still eats up champions and record-holders. Spartathlon takes no prisoners” Find out more about Jason [http://www.relentlessromero.com/about.html] APPLE PODCAST [https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/legends-of-spartathlon-episode-7-jason-romero/id1507193169?i=1000488571853] : SPOTIFY PODCAST [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RL5ibWFiVBQ16jamGShwp]

Mimi Anderson has broken countless World Records, global ultra-marathon firsts and holds a special place in the Spartathlon pantheon being the first ever runner "in competition" to complete the extraordinary Spartathlon Double Here Mimi shares her long-lasting love of Spartathlon and tales from her incredible and trailblazing 20+ year ultra-marathon career. Mimi has done every big race in the book and often done it twice....in one outing - just Marvellous

For Episode 5 of this podcast we had trouble convincing our hosts that they were indeed “Legends”. Come on - when you’ve both finished Spartathlon multiple times, when (in Anto’s case) you’ve DNf’ed three times and you still go back for more and (in Rolando’s case) you’ve finished four times in a row and your form looks like you could smash your PB but your real love is to run with your buddy - then these guys are 100% Legends THIS podcast is not for the feint-hearted. Any complaints need to go directly to Anto……Enjoy