The famous Spartathlon race takes place from Athens to Sparta each year and Irishman John McCarthy, originally from Cork, is one of its co-founders. He has been made a Freeman of Sparta and also received a special medal from the Greek government for his role in founding the event.
The origins of the race go back 2,500 years to the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., a landmark battle in world history. The Greek historian Herodotus later recounted the deeds of Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger, who was sent by his generals to Sparta in order to secure help against the Persians. According to Herodotus, Pheidippides arrived in Sparta on "the next day of his departure" from Athens - a distance of about 250km.
In 1982, five members of the RAF, including John McCarthy, set out to cover the same route within 40 hours or "two days and a night". The three 'Johns' - John Scholten, John Foden and John McCarthy - achieved the task and the modern day Spartathlon was born. John McCarthy says "We established a credible and historically correct route using ancient military roads, pilgrim ways, dry river beds and goat tracks, taking into consideration the then current political alignments and enemy states to be skirted."
John was a runner of some note, running a 4:07 mile, a 2:42 marathon and covering 123 miles in 24 hours in standard distance events. He also ran the London to Brighton 54-mile race in just over 7 hours. And not only did he help establish the Spartathlon, but in doing so he was undoubtedly an inspiration for the legendary Yiannis Kouros to take up ultra distance running.
Yiannis was a groundsman in the town of Tripolis when John undertook the first test run in 1982. When Kouros joined the team for a while, they told him the background story to their run and he was "bitten by the bug", says John. The following year Yiannis Kouros won the first International Spartathlon race against the invited best ultra runners in the world. He did so by such a margin that the organisers refused to present him with the trophy for two days until it was proven beyond doubt he hadn`t cheated. Within a few years, he would hold almost every distance record, indoors and out, from 100 miles to 1000 miles.
This year is the 2500-year anniversary of the original run by Pheidippides and you can check out the Spartathlon race website at www.spartathlon.gr. Only about one-third of the runners who leave Athens end the course in Sparta within the 36-hour time limit.
John McCarthy is 68-years-old and no longer runs due to hip problems. However, he compensates by cycling his previous running distances instead. He says "same sort of distances and same sort of terrain but I get to sit down." It's fantastic to have such a strong Irish connection to the modern day Spartathlon.
John Scholten, John Foden and John McCarthy after their trial Spartathlon in 1982.
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