Ziria Skyrace 2014, not only a trail running race!

Hello,
Let me tell you my story about the hardest 30km trail race in Greece…
Ziria Skyrace

Why “Skyrace”?
Skyrace is characterized a race that it’s course is longer than 20 kilometers long and the highest altitude point is in over 2000 meters.
So this race was the goal of the year. One month after the Athens Classic Marathon,I began to train for this race. Almost every Sunday morning, from December until May I was running on Parnitha mountain,in Athens,because I wanted to be ready in June for the race.
Training in the winter went good.
Unfortunately in one of my last trainings in May I had an injury, a muscle strain in my right leg.
I had to stop running for one month…

The starting and finishing line of the race was in a hilly area of Arkadia,in a small village called Goura…
The mountain’s name is Oros Kyllini(Ziria).

The night before the race I was very anxious and I slept only for 1 hour.
The race began at 9 o’ clock in the morning…

I began to run slowly because I hadn’t run for one month and I was afraid for my injured leg.

The course was very difficult because from the 30km the 25 were uphills/downhills ,some of them very hard and vertical.
The race was more a climbing race than a running race…

At the 6th kilometer I began to feel dizzy and exhausted,because of the high altitude, but I made it and reached the top of the mountain(7th km,2400m).

After that I had to deal with a hard downhill until the 13th kilometer.The ground was very rocky and slithery.

Then began the only easy part of the race,2 kilometers in a straight soft ground in the canyon “Flampouritsa”.

Suddenly I felt a serious pain in my knee,it was like a big needle from inside my knee trying to drill my skin!
That was a big problem,I had to continue the race,the next 17 hard kilometers with that pain.
When I was a soccer player(semi-professional goalkeeper for one season) I had an injury in that knee(broken meniscus),what’s why it couldn’t stand up against that hard downhill.
Also in the canyon,because of humidity I felt exhausted again!
My goal then became to reach the 17km,which was the central help station of the race and also a time dead line.The athletes had to be there until 2 o’clock(5 hours in the race).
So I was at the 15th kilometer 3:45 hours in the race and I had to reach the station until the 5 hour limit.
No!i hadn’t too much time!
I had to deal with the biggest challenge of my trail running “career” . I had to climb a very hard and vertical uphill for the next 2 kilometers in that bad situation I was.
One step at a time and I made it! I was in the station in 4:45 hours in the race.
I rested for 5 minutes ,ate some fruits and nuts,drank coke and water and i decided to continue the race.

The pain was still on my knee but I didn’t want to give up.
When I was at the 22th kilometer began to rain. At the top of the mountain the weather is unstable and unpredictable,but the rain didn’t last over 10 minutes.
At the 23 kilometer i was on the top of the mountain again,I put some snow on my knee to relieve it temporary from the pain.

The next 7 kilometers were a continuously downhill ,but on a soft ground.
So my hard adventure ended after 8 hours and 45 minutes…. The first athlete finished the race in 3:50… I was second to last (139 of 140 athletes) ,but who cares???

I did something big that day… I overcame my fear, I surpassed my body and myself!
I will never forget that race,because it wasn’t only a race, it was a lesson in life!
I have become a better and stronger person after that experience.

thanks for reading! :)