Monmouth runner Mark Williamson was among the record number of runners who completed this year's Athens marathon on Sunday 31st October, on the 2,500th anniversary of the battle that gave the event its name.
Legend has it that the distance from Marathon to Athens was first run by Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger who in 490BC dashed to the democratic city states of Athens and Platea victory of the soldiers of Athens the Persian army. He then collapsed and died from exhaustion.
On a hot, sunny morning, this year's race started close to the tumulus erected for the Greek dead of the battle of Marathon.
The first 20 miles are mainly uphill and then the course eases, mainly downhill, and finishes at the glorious all-marble Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
"It was a fantastic event," said Mark, "but I'm certainly glad not to have run it in armour and sandals."