Athens Classic Marathon

The Athens Classic Marathon The Authentic is an annual marathon road race held in Athens, Greece, normally in early November (the second Sunday of November), since 1972. It also often serves as Greece's national marathon championships. The race attracted 43,000 competitors in 2015 of which 16,000 were for the 42.195 kilometre (26.2 mile) course, both numbers being an all-time record for the event. The rest of the runners competed in the concurrent 5 and 10 kilometres road races and the racewalking contest.

Athens Classic Marathon
Panathinaiko Stadium is the finishing point of the race
DateEarly November
LocationAthens, Greece
Event typeRoad
DistanceMarathon
Primary sponsorOPAP
Established1972 (1972)
Course recordsMen: 2:10:34 (2023)
Edwin Kiptoo
Women: 2:31:06 (2010)
Rasa Drazdauskaitė
Official siteAthens Classic Marathon
Participants4,020 finishers (2021)
16,436 (2019)
15,279 (2018)

The marathon race and course is inspired by the Ancient Greek legend of Pheidippides, a messenger who is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

Taking from the tradition of the Olympic Torch, the race features the Marathon Flame, which is lit at the Tomb of the Battle of Marathon and carried to the stadium in Marathon before the beginning of each race. In addition, an international marathon symposium is held the day before the race.

Greek competitors have traditionally been strong in the men's and women's competitions. However, East Africans and Japanese runners have increasingly become the dominant runners from 1999 onwards. The current course records are 2:10:34 hours for men, set by Edwin Kiptoo in 2023, while Rasa Drazdauskaitė's run of 2:31:06 in 2010 is the quickest by a woman on the course.

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