Getting In · International ultra
Spartathlon
In 490 BC, Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta to ask for help against the Persians and arrived the next day. In 1982 a group of RAF officers proved it was possible. Now, every September, four hundred runners try to do it in thirty-six hours.
- Distance
- 246 km153 miles
- Cutoff
- 36 hours
- Field
- ~400
- Finish rate
- Often around 40%
- Checkpoints
- 75, all with cutoffs
- Finish
- The feet of the Leonidas statue
Spartathlon is a road ultra with the soul of a pilgrimage. The route runs out of Athens through industrial suburbs, along the Corinth Canal, through vineyards and olive groves, over the 1,200-metre Sangas Pass at Mount Parthenio in the middle of the night, and down into Sparta. The finish is at the statue of Leonidas, where you touch his foot and are given a wreath and water from the Evrotas river.
The difficulty is the cutoffs. There are 75 checkpoints and every one has a time limit, front-loaded so that the early pace is genuinely demanding. Finish rates hover around 40 percent, and most DNFs are cutoff-related rather than physical collapse.
How to get in
- Time qualifierThe qualifying standards
You must have run a qualifying performance within the previous two years. Examples of the structure: a 100 mile finish under 21 hours gets you into the ballot, and under 15h45 for men is an automatic qualification. Beating a standard by roughly 25 percent generally means automatic entry rather than the ballot.
- LotteryNational ballots
The field is capped at 400 runners and allocated by country. Non-automatic qualifiers go into a national ballot, so your odds depend on how competitive your country's quota is. Several countries run their own teams and selection processes.
The cutoffs are the race
Runners consistently say Spartathlon is not about the distance, it's about the clock.
- Front-loaded pressure. The early checkpoint limits require a genuinely quick pace, so there is no easing into it.
- The marathon-ish checkpoint at Hellas Can and the Corinth checkpoint at around 80 km are the classic early elimination points.
- Heat. Late September in Greece is hot on the exposed coastal sections during the first day.
- The mountain at night. Sangas Pass around 160 km, in the cold and dark, a rocky ascent after a full day of road running.
- Support is restricted. Crew access is limited to specific points, so " plan around the official aid.
Questions runners actually ask
What times qualify for Spartathlon?
Standards are set across several distances and updated regularly. As an example of the structure, a 100 mile finish under 21 hours has qualified for the ballot while roughly 15h45 for men has been an automatic qualifier. Exceeding a standard by around 25 percent generally means automatic entry.
How many people finish?
Around 40 percent in a typical year, with most failures caused by the 75 checkpoint cutoffs rather than by injury.
Is Spartathlon on road?
Almost entirely, apart from the mountain section over Sangas Pass. It is a road ultra, which makes it a very different discipline from trail 100s.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Need the races in between? The hard part of a bucket list year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.