The Spartathlon
斯巴达超级马拉松
The lunacy of the long-distance runner
长跑运动员的疯狂
Vomit, bleeding nipples and hallucinations. Why would anyone in their right mind run the Spartathlon?
呕吐、乳头出血以及幻觉。为什么会有精神正常的人想要跑斯巴达超马？
Dec 22nd 2012 | ATHENS AND SPARTI | from the print edition of The Economist
译者：nayilus
THE Parthenon is lit, but Athens is still dark. In the gloom, a cleaner is sweeping the pedestrianised road that runs beneath the southern slope of the Acropolis. And in the trees beside the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient stone theatre, Lycra-clad figures are urinating everywhere.
帕泰农神殿点起了灯光，但整个雅典还在睡眠之中。四周一片昏暗，一个清洁工正在清扫雅典卫城南坡之下的人行道。在海罗德·阿得库斯露天剧场旁的树丛里，到处都是身穿氨纶运动服、正在撒尿的运动员。
These are the last few minutes before the start of the Spartathlon, one of the world’s toughest ultra-marathons. The 310 runners in this year’s race are doing their final stretches. Energy supplements are being taken; running belts are being checked; caps with neck flaps to protect against the sun are being adjusted. Many athletes have a crew to support them during the race; there is time for some final words of encouragement before the runners edge towards the starting line.
这是斯巴达超马开始前的最后几分钟。该赛事是世界上最艰难的超级马拉松（简称超马）之一。今年参赛的310名跑者正在做最后的伸展运动。他们正在吞服能量补品、检查腰带、调整防日晒的遮脖帽。很多参赛选手都有在赛程中提供支持的团队。在选手纷纷走向起跑线之前还有时间对他们说两句最后的鼓励之词。
At 7am precisely, as dawn approaches, the race begins. The field strings round the Acropolis and past the agora, the heart of ancient Athenian life, before heading into the early-morning traffic. The pace is gentle: an average runner can keep up for the first kilometre easily. But this race is about distance, not speed. After that first kilometre, another and another and another lie ahead. Everyone in the field has completed at least a 100km (62-mile) race. For this event, they will have to run 245km (or almost six consecutive marathons) within 36 hours. Only 72 of them will end up making it all the way to historical Sparta.
在早上7点整，随着黎明的降临，比赛开始了。比赛路线绕卫城一周，通过雅典阿哥拉这一古代雅典生活的中心，然后就和清晨的雅典交通一起踏上道路。跑者们的步伐并不快：普通的跑者在首一公里内要跟上他们不是什么难事。但是这项赛事的关键不在于速度，而是距离。在跑完第一公里之后，一个个公里会接踵而来。参赛的所有选手都曾经跑完过至少100公里（62英里）的赛事。在这项赛事里，他们需要在36小时内跑完245公里。最后成功抵达古代斯巴达地区的选手只有72名。
This year’s Spartathlon, which took place in late September, was the 30th. Its heritage goes back much further. The most famous ultra-marathon in history was that run by Pheidippides, an Athenian who made the journey to Sparta in 490BC. His mission was to ask the Spartans for their help in fighting the invading Persians; Herodotus, a historian, records that he reached Sparta on the day after he left Athens. (The Spartans were celebrating a religious festival, so could not offer help until after the Athenians had dispatched the Persians at the battle of Marathon.)
今年9月底举行的斯巴达超马是第30届。但是其历史传承则要古老的多。历史上最著名的超马跑者是雅典人菲迪皮得斯（Pheidippides），他在公元前490年完成这一长跑来到斯巴达，目的是为了请求斯巴达人发动援军抵抗入侵的波斯大军。历史学家希罗多德（Herodotus）在书中记录了菲迪皮得斯离开雅典后第二天就抵达了斯巴达。不过斯巴达人当时正在庆祝一个宗教节日，因此无法及时派兵，等到他们派出军队时，雅典人已经在马拉松战役里击败了波斯大军。
Herodotus did not appear particularly taken by Pheidippides’s feat of endurance. Since his “Histories” also includes tales of ants bigger than foxes, it probably seemed rather unimpressive. But in 1982 his terse description sparked the interest of a British air-force officer and long-distance runner called John Foden, who wondered if it really was possible to run from Athens to Sparta and arrive the next day. With four other officers, Mr Foden decided to see for himself; after 36 hours’ slog they arrived in Sparti, as the town is now called.
希罗多德对于菲迪皮得斯的长跑壮举并未表示特别的惊讶。考虑到他所著的《历史》一书中也包括比狐狸还要大的蚂蚁这一类故事，他对这项成就无动于衷也许是可以理解的。但是1982年一位英国空军军官兼长跑运动员约翰·佛登（John Foden）对希罗多德简短的描述产生了兴趣。他开始考虑一个问题：从雅典开始跑，第二天就到达斯巴达究竟可不可能？佛登和其他四位军官一起决定亲自验证这一点，在36小时的艰难之旅后，他们终于抵达了现代的斯巴达镇。
Racing through history
穿越历史的长跑
That achievement inspired the organisation of the first Spartathlon a year later; the race now ranks as one of the world’s classic ultra-marathons. The Spartathlon’s allure has two sources. The first is the difficulty of finishing it. Any race that is longer than a marathon can call itself an ultra-marathon, but no self-respecting ultrarunner gets excited about finishing, say, a 48km course. The most talked-about events in the calendar are the ones that look most incomprehensible to the average person.
这项成就促成了一年后举办的第一届斯巴达超马赛事。现在其已是全世界超马比赛中的经典赛事之一。斯巴达超马的吸引力有两个原因。首先，跑完该赛事是非常困难的。任何长度超过马拉松的赛事都可以被称为是超马。但是任何有自尊心的超长距离跑者对于跑完像是48公里这样的赛事都不会感到兴奋。每年他们讨论最多的是那些普通人完全无法理解的赛事。
Take the Barkley. This 161km trail race in Tennessee forces runners to makes climbs and descents of 18,000 metres each inside 60 hours. The Barkley has been going since 1986, and in that period only 13 people have managed to finish the course within the cut-off time. Badwater is another race that derives kudos from insanity. The 217km course in California runs from Death Valley to Mount Whitney in temperatures of 50°C and above. (“Nudity is specifically not allowed,” say the rules.)
例如巴克利超马，这项在美国田纳西州举行的161公里赛事要求参赛者在60小时内跑完，其中包括长达18公里的上坡和18公里的下坡。巴克利超马从1986年开始举行，至今只有13人曾在规定时间内跑完全程。恶水超马是另一项因为疯狂而名气大增的赛事。这项美国加州赛事长达217公里，在50摄氏度以上的高温里选手们必须从死谷一路跑到惠特利峰。（大赛规则中写道：“特别注意－选手禁止裸体”）
The Spartathlon cannot claim such extremes. It is not the hilliest race, nor the hottest. But it combines lots of different tests. There is the heat of the Greek day, then the plunge in temperatures when darkness falls. There are climbs, too: the route includes a series of ascents, among them a 1,200-metre mountain pass negotiated in the dead of night. Above all, there is the relentless pressure of the clock.
斯巴达超马并不具有这些极端因素。它既不是最崎岖的，也不是最炎热的。但是这项赛事把很多不同的考验融合在一起。希腊地区白天格外炎热，而天黑后气温又开始急降。赛程中也包含坡度：比赛路线会经过一系列上坡路段，包括在深夜要爬上一座海拔1200米的山口。在所有这些因素之上更有时间对跑者施加着无情的压力。
Badwater gives competitors 48 hours to finish; the Spartathlon gives them 12 hours fewer to run 27km more. A series of 75 checkpoints ram home the pressure: if a runner is not at a checkpoint by a specified time, he is pulled out of the race. That explains why many Spartathletes mock the Marathon des Sables (MdS), a six-day, 250km run through the Sahara that has a much higher profile and also vies for the title of the world’s toughest foot race. The MdS allows for fripperies such as sleep. “A trekking holiday” is how one veteran of both dismisses it.
恶水超马给参赛者48小时跑完全程。斯巴达超马比恶水超马长27公里，给选手的时间却要少整整12个小时。一路上还有75道关卡向选手施压：选手如果抵达某一关卡所用时间超过规定，就必须退出比赛。这解释了为什么很多斯巴达超马跑者对于撒哈拉马拉松（MdS）嗤之以鼻。该赛事的知名度要比斯巴达超马高得多，而且其同样也在角逐最艰难的长跑赛事这一殊荣。撒哈拉马拉松历时6天，全程通过撒哈拉沙漠，总长250公里，其间包括让选手可以睡觉休息这样的“花俏玩意”。一位两项赛事都曾跑过的老将把撒哈拉马拉松称为一次“假日远足”。
If the athletic demands of the race explain some of its prestige, a second reason is its heritage. Never mind that the first stages take the runners through a grim industrial estate outside Athens: the idea of retracing Pheidippides’s footsteps still grips many participants. “It feels like racing in history, passing through places where history began,” says Ivan Cudin, an Italian who won in 2010 and 2011.
如果说这项赛事对参加者身体素质的要求是其地位崇高的原因之一，那么另一个原因要数其历史传承。虽然赛程最初几段路会穿过雅典市郊阴森森的工业区，但是追随菲迪皮得斯的脚步对很多参赛者来说还是有着特殊的吸引力。2010年和2011年赢得冠军的意大利人伊凡·库丁（Ivan Cudin）说：“感觉上就好像是在历史里赛跑，沿途经过历史起源的地方。”
因此，斯巴达超马可说是一项宏伟传统的低调实例，是对古典希腊入迷的外国访客的盛事。19世纪20年代西方对希腊独立战争的支持就是基于现代希腊是古代希腊的传承这一亲希腊思想之上的。希腊之所以能够加入欧盟和欧元区很大程度上也是因为“没有民主摇篮的欧洲不是完整的欧洲”这一思想。1979年当希腊签订加入欧洲共同体协议时，法国总统瓦勒里·吉斯卡尔·德斯坦（Valéry Giscard d’Estaing）曾说过：“没有希腊的欧洲就不能算是欧洲。欧洲文化在希腊达到了最具活力的表达并获得了其有关均衡和美的绝妙感觉。”
A glorious past, especially one heroised so relentlessly by the rest of the world, can be a burden, says Nikos Dimou, the author of a book of aphorisms called “The Unhappiness of Being Greek”, which was published in Greece itself in 1975, has subsequently become a big seller in Germany, and will appear in English in 2013. One of his pertinent reflections runs:
尼科斯·迪默（Nikos Dimou）曾著有《身为希腊人的不幸》一书。该书在1975年于希腊出版，后来又在德国大卖，2013年其英译本将会问世。他认为一段辉煌的过去，尤其是被世界其它地方所极力推崇的过去有时会是一种负担。他有一句反思尤为一语中的：
'Any race believing itself to be descended from the ancient Greeks would be automatically unhappy. Unless it could either forget them or surpass them.'
“一个种族如果相信自己是古希腊人的直系后代，那除非他能遗忘或是超越过去，不然其将自动陷身于不幸之中。”
The Spartathlon feels like a largely uncomplicated homage. But the gap between troubled modernity and shining antiquity still gapes uncomfortably at times. The stinging of tear gas in Syntagma Square two nights before this year’s race began was one reminder of Greece’s current problems. And when the citizens of Sparti stood to hear the national anthem of the winner, there was an awful inevitability to the sound of the Deutschlandlied.
斯巴达超马作为一项怀古盛事感觉上并没有掺杂太多的复杂情绪。但是倍受困扰的现代状况和闪耀发光的古代故事之间存在的巨大鸿沟依然时不时显露出来，给人以不适的感觉。今年的斯巴达超马起跑两晚前在雅典宪法广场残留的催泪气体刺眼的感觉依然提醒人们希腊现在面临的问题。而当斯巴达市的市民倾听冠军选手国歌时，播放的是《德意志之歌》也带来一种糟糕的命中注定感。
From the start, the pressure of the clock leads to some bad decisions. The goal of many in the Spartathlon is to build up a comfortable time buffer in the first part of the race, which they can gradually run down when the going gets tough in the later stages. A reasonable plan, as long as you don’t go too fast too early.
从一开始，时间压力就造成一些选手做出错误决定。很多斯巴达超马选手的目标是在第一段赛程内累积舒适的时间盈余，这样在之后赛程变得艰难时他们就可以慢慢使用这些盈余。这是一个很明智的计划，前提是你不能太早提速过快。
在今年的赛事里，希腊的天气意味着除了坐在树荫下不动，任何速度都可以说是过快了。希腊9月尾通常气温都不低，但是今年的温度比往年还要更高。沥青路和路边岩石表面散发出来的热量进一步让空气升温。在这样的状况下中暑和脱水是两个很明显的问题，但大量饮水并不一定是正解。很多选手发现自己无法把食物和饮料保持在胃中：通往斯巴达的道路上布满了选手的呕吐物。饮水过量会使体内多余的水分稀释血液中的钠含量，使选手容易陷入一种称为低钠血症的状况。这等于是从体内发生的溺水。
The heat caused a very high early drop-out rate. Many people were timed out before the first major checkpoint, after 80km. Those whose race ends prematurely are collected by a bus (nicknamed “the death bus”) which slowly makes its way to Sparti, stopping to pick up more non-finishers and occasionally to let off its passengers to throw up.
高温让大量选手在赛程初期纷纷退出。在距起点80公里处的第一个主要关卡有很多选手因为超时而失去资格。那些未跑完全程就退出比赛的选手会被接到一辆巴士（人们称其为“死亡巴士”）上。该车慢悠悠地驶向终点斯巴达，沿途不断停车将更多的退赛选手接上车，偶尔也停下来让车上乘客可以下车呕吐。
The survivors run on, across the Isthmus of Corinth and into the Peloponnese. At ancient Corinth, 93km from Athens and barely more than a third of the way into the race, athletes sporadically arrive at another checkpoint.
幸存者继续向前奔跑，穿越科林斯地峡，进入伯罗奔尼撒半岛。在距雅典93公里的柯林斯古城，选手们陆续抵达另一个关卡。他们才刚刚跑完全程的三分之一。
All pain and no gain
满是痛苦，毫无收获
The drama lies not in the competition between them but in their personal struggles. Many douse themselves repeatedly in cold water. Some briefly rest, grimacing as they rise to their feet again. One disoriented Japanese runner heads off in the wrong direction, and needs to be overhauled and turned around. James Adams, a British runner, arrives after about ten hours on the road, a great muddy stain of blood on his shirt, courtesy of unlubricated nipples. A couple of tourists sit in a nearby taverna watching the runners head off again. “Isn’t it amazing?” says one. “Or stupid,” responds the other. Her scepticism is understandable.
这项赛事的戏剧性不在于参赛者之间的竞争，而在于参赛者和自己的斗争。有的选手反复将冷水淋在身上。有的会做短暂的休息，重新站起来前进时露出痛苦的表情。一位晕头转向的日本选手跑反了方向，人们不得不赶上他将其方向纠正。一位英国选手詹姆斯·亚当斯（James Adams）在跑了十个小时后抵达这一关卡，运动服前方沾满大片血迹，这是因为赛前没有润滑乳头造成的。坐在附近酒馆里的几位游客看着这些选手再次踏上行程。他们中的一人说道“真是惊人。”另一位游客回应道：“或者说是愚蠢。”她对这一行为质疑的态度是完全可以理解的。
这项赛事会吸引到超长距离赛跑界的很多重要人物。首两届斯巴达超马的冠军（后来还赢了两届）应该是你没听说过的运动员中最优秀的：伊安尼斯·柯罗斯（Yiannis Kouros）本是一位希腊人，后来加入了澳大利亚籍，他在这项赛事和其它很多长距离赛事中创下的记录被人们看作是无法触及的。美国传奇选手斯科耶·朱雷克（Scott Jurek）曾在这项赛事上拿过三次冠军。今年参赛选手中名声最响的是英国选手利兹·浩克尔（Lizzie Hawker），她目前保持有24小时内奔跑距离最长的女子记录。虽然冠军没有任何奖金，这个水准的运动员大多有自己的赞助商，能拿下斯巴达超马胜利被视为是巨大的宣传。
But almost everyone else in the race is an amateur. These people are spending their own time and money to come to Greece in order to run for hours on end in sapping heat. Their reward, if things go well, is to keep going all night and the next day, too.
但是除他们之外，大多数参赛选手都是业余跑者。这些人花费自己的时间金钱前来希腊，就是为了在令人疲软的高温下跑上几小时。如果一切顺利，他们所能获得的奖励就是可以继续在晚上及第二天坚持跑下去。
Their training regimes leave no time for the weekend lie-in. Rajeev Patel, an American, says that in the build-up to the race he ran for 10-12 hours on a Saturday, and then another 4-5 hours on Sunday to get used to jogging on tired legs. An Irish athlete tells how after clocking off from a late shift at work, she sometimes runs all the way through the night, only getting home in time for a quick shower before heading off for the next day. Neither even made it to ancient Corinth.
他们的训练表让其周末没有时间可以休息。美国人拉吉夫·帕特尔（Rajeev Patel）提到他在准备这次赛事时每个周六都要跑10-12小时，之后再在周日跑4-5个小时以习惯用疲惫的双腿跑步。一位爱尔兰选手告诉我们她有时会在做完晚班后直接花上整夜跑步回家，到家之后只来得及草草冲一个澡，就得出门上班了。这两位选手这次都连柯林斯古城也没有跑到。
Such obsessiveness would be easier to dismiss as nutty were it not for the rising popularity of ultrarunning. Keith Godden, editor of ultramarathonrunning.com, an events-listings website, started the site as a hobby in 2008; it is now a full-time job. He says the number of races in Britain, for example, has tripled in three years. If this is madness, it is catching.
如果不是因为超马运动正在变得越来越受欢迎，你也许可以把这种坚持视之为疯狂。超马赛事目录网站ultramarathonrunning.com的编辑凯斯·戈登（Keith Godden）在2008年出于兴趣成立了该网站。现在这已变成他的全职工作。据他介绍，例如在英国的超马赛事在三年内已经增加了两倍。如果这是疯狂的话，那么它至少是一种正在风靡的疯狂。
有人认为参与这类运动人数的增长是因为马拉松已经变得稀松平常了。对于寻找挑战的人们来说，跑更长的距离是很符合逻辑的下一步。跑者本身对于超长距离奔跑的简单性及独立性抱以狂热的赞赏。2010年尝试过斯巴达超马的罗宾·哈维（Robin Harvie）后来写了一本自我反思的书《为什么跑步》。他提出在跑步训练时他可以把日常生活中的烦心事抛之脑后。在略作思考后，他补充说：“也许我只是精疲力竭了。”
As night falls, so does the temperature. Many of the athletes have prepared bags for the organisers to place at specific checkpoints: this is when they pick up things such as head torches and warmer clothing. The landscape changes, too. The middle of the night sees the remaining runners scrambling up a mountain trail to crest the Sangas Pass, then down and across the plains to Tegea.
随着夜晚的降临，温度也开始下降。很多选手事先准备了包裹，让赛事组织者放置在特定的关卡：现在是他们领取这些包裹的时候。寄存的物品包括绑在头上的探照灯和较厚的衣物。地形也开始发生改变。午夜时分，几名坚持下来的跑者沿着一条山路上坡，最终抵达散格斯山口，之后他们会走下坡路，经过特吉阿平原。
It was above Tegea, according to Herodotus, that Pheidippides had an encounter with Pan, the god of the wild. At around this mark, almost 200km from his starting point, it would have been no surprise if Pheidippides experienced the first recorded case of exercise-induced hallucination. Many ultrarunners report seeing things as a result of exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Mr Adams recalls following a white line painted on the road at the Badwater ultra-marathon, and clearly seeing a man ahead of him picking up the line and shaking it around like a roll of toilet paper.
根据希罗多德的记载，正是在特吉阿平原上，菲迪皮得斯遇见了荒野之神潘。此地距起点大约200公里。在这里，菲迪皮得斯经历的也许是历史上记载的第一宗运动幻觉，这毫不奇怪。很多超长距离跑者都曾报告过因为疲劳和缺乏睡眠的双重因素产生的幻觉。亚当斯回忆说在跑恶水超马时曾跟着路上画着的一条白线跑，并清楚看到他前方有一个人把白线从地上捡起来，像是拿着一卷卫生纸那样来回摇动。
Come and get them
自己来拿
There are now 50km to go to Sparti. Anyone who has got this far can be fairly confident of finishing, but it will not be easy. The checkpoint closing-times must still be beaten. The sun rises again, and the heat on day two of this year’s race is just as searing as on the first. Running this far wears the body down: tests of ultrarunners before and after races show huge jumps in creatine-kinase and C-reactive protein, both markers of muscle damage and inflammation. The last bit of the race is almost all downhill, an extra burden on the joints.
现在距离斯巴达还有50公里。任何跑到这里的选手基本上对于跑完全程都是很有信心的，但真要跑完也不轻松。每个关卡的限制时间依然要遵守。太阳再次升起，第二天的高温和第一天一样令人煎熬。跑到这个距离时身体已经是极度损耗了。超长距离赛前和赛后对选手做的检查显示其体内的肌酸激酶和C反应蛋白含量都大大增加。这两种化学物质都是肌肉损伤和发炎的标示物质。赛事的最后一段路几乎全是下坡，这对腿关节来说会产生额外的负担。
The body’s stores of glycogen, an energy source, are depleted, too, whatever regime the athletes have been following to build them up. Loading up on pasta is by no means the only option for packing more glycogen into the muscles and liver. Some believe in the paleolithic diet, which is supposed to mimic the carnivorous diets of that era. One of this year’s Spartathlon finishers, Michael Arnstein, eats almost nothing but raw fruit.
不管选手在赛前如何在体内储备能源物质——糖原，到了这个时候糖原基本也已耗尽了。大量吞食意大利面并不是增加肌肉和肝脏内储备糖原的唯一方法。有些选手相信石器时代的饮食方法，效仿那个时代的肉食饮食。今年有一位跑完全程的西班牙选手迈克尔·阿恩斯坦因（Michael Arnstein）除了新鲜水果几乎什么都不吃。
But for those who do finish, mental fortitude explains more than physical preparation. These are people who simply will not stop until they reach their goal, whether they run, walk or hobble. The importance of mental grit may explain why older runners do noticeably well: the winner this year was 46, and the oldest finisher was 60.
但是要想完成这项赛事，精神上的坚韧要比身体准备状况更为重要。有一些人不管是跑、走还是瘸着腿蹒跚，都绝不会放弃自己的目标。精神毅力的重要性可以解释为什么年龄大的选手明显表现比年轻选手好。今年的冠军46岁，而跑完全程的选手中最老的有60岁。
Their destination is a statue of King Leonidas, leader of the 300 Spartans who died defending the pass of Thermopylae against another invading Persian army ten years after Pheidippides’s mission to Sparta. The statue’s inscription reads “Come and get them”, the Spartan response when the Persians asked them to put down their weapons. If being a modern Greek is tough because of the burden of the past, imagine being a man in Sparti.
选手的终点是斯巴达国王列奥尼达斯（Leonidas）的雕像。在菲迪皮得斯前赴斯巴达之旅十年后，这位国王带领300名斯巴达战士面对另一支入侵的波斯大军死守温泉关英勇牺牲。该雕像下刻着“自己来拿！”，这是波斯人要求斯巴达人缴械时斯巴达人做出的回应。如果说因为历史包袱，身为一名现代希腊人不容易，想想要身为一位现代斯巴达人得背负多大的负担？
The statue stands at the end of Sparti’s main street. A crowd gathers around Leonidas early on the morning of the second day, staying put until the final cut-off at 7pm. When the runners descend into Sparti they are met on the fringes by a posse of local children on bicycles, who first clap them past and then cycle behind them on their final loop through the town. People in pavement cafés, many of them participants who have been ferried to Sparti on the death bus, rise and applaud as each competitor shuffles past.
这尊雕像站在斯巴达主街道的街口。人群在赛事第二天的早晨就开始聚集在列奥尼达斯王雕像四周，一直等到当天傍晚7点的截止时间。当选手跑进斯巴达时，他们会在城镇外沿遇上一大群骑着自行车的孩子，他们先是为跑过身边的选手鼓掌，然后骑着自行车跟在选手身后穿过斯巴达。人行道边咖啡厅内的客人有很多是被死亡巴士送来的选手，他们纷纷起立为经过的选手鼓掌。
The first to reach the statue this year was Stu Thoms of Germany, in a time of 26 hours and 28 minutes. Ms Hawker easily won the women’s race, not only beating the course record but coming third in the overall race as well. But each finisher is accorded the same warm reception as they reach the statue, and slump against Leonidas’s feet. Mr Adams makes it home in just over 34 hours, his third finish and the hardest one yet. The last runner in, a Greek, does so with less than four minutes to spare.
今年最先到达雕像的选手是德国人斯图·索姆斯（Stu Thoms），成绩是26小时28分。浩克尔赢得了女子组的冠军，她不仅打破了女子赛事记录而且是所有选手中的第三名。不过无论名次，每位完成全程的选手抵达终点，在列奥尼达斯脚边跌倒时都会收到热烈的欢迎。亚当斯花了34小时多一点的时间才跑完全程，这是他第三次跑完斯巴达超马，也是他三次里最艰难的一次。最后抵达的是一名希腊选手，他跑完时离时限只剩下不到4分钟。
完成全程的跑者会接受女学生给予的胜利花环和饮水。这些女生身披古希腊的长袍，显得有些格格不入。这样的古代仪式在庆祝历史的同时，也许也是一种让希腊忘记自己所处困境的方法。就算如此，古希腊的形象和理想——无论是雅典的民主还是斯巴达的自我牺牲精神——依然强而有力。这对于外国人来说也许不是一件坏事。至于希腊人嘛，这提醒了他们自己的祖国过去曾享受着和如今完全不同的声名。虽然对于许多个人参赛者来说斯巴达超马也许毫无意义，但是在精疲力尽的胜利时刻选手们还怀有一种深刻的感觉。选手们的衣物上粘着巨大的盐渍。双眼充满了通宵引起的疲惫。很多人在接受花环时非常激动。之后他们会被带到医疗帐篷内接受按摩和各种休养服务，并会挂上点滴。
Euphoria is fleeting. Within a few minutes, joints start to seize up: after the race, the town resembles the set of a zombie film as participants lumber slowly around on legs that will not bend. Mr Harvie, the runner and author, recalls the effects of the Spartathlon on his feet: toenails lifted clean off, great chunks of dead skin on his soles. And the itch to do it all over again soon appears. Mr Adams refers to the character of Brooks in “The Shawshank Redemption”, who gets released after many years in prison and then hangs himself, to explain how the end of a very tough event can leave a runner feeling unmoored. This was one problem that Pheidippides would not have recognised. He had to run back again.
喜悦是短暂的。几分钟内，关节就会开始僵硬。在大赛过后，这个小镇看上去就好像是僵尸电影的布景，人们都缓慢地靠无法弯曲的双腿移动。跑者兼作家的哈维回忆跑完斯巴达超马对他双脚的影响：脚趾甲都完全上翘，脚底有大片的死皮。而想要再次进行此类赛跑的渴望很快又会开始在心中发芽。亚当斯提到过《肖申克的救赎》中一个在服完多年监狱后上吊自杀的角色，以此来解释为什么完成一项非常艰苦的赛事会让跑者感觉失落。当然，菲迪皮得斯当年可不会认识到这一问题，他立刻就得再次往回跑全程。
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