Last Saturday June 23rd we had the SNF RUN in view of the Summer Nostos Festival Events held at the Foundation and this particular “race to the future” has been held on the same day – 23rd of June – since the inaugaration of the Cultural Center 4 years ago.
Race Starting Point was at the Panathenaic Stadium and all us 6000+ Runners had to be there at our different starting corrals by 20:40, with starting time being 21:00 .
Finish Line: Stavros Niarchos Park/Track
Panathenaic Stadium
Panathenaic Stadium
Everything was going to plan except for the hard rain that fell just as the starting gun was fired!!! Not much can be said about the running difficulties because of the very hard rainfall except that since we stuck to the race despite the rain; of course we had to be extra careful not to fall too hard into the huge puddles of rain on the road and of course try hard to see in front of us.
All well till now – for me the main issue was that the central / main complex of roads downtown Athens were closed due to the race making life easier for the 6000+ of us that were running but so, sooooo difficult for the many, many thousands of Athenians who decided to use these main roads between 8:30 and 10:30 on one of the busiest days (Saturday night) on one of the busiest complex of central Athens. This resulted in many unhappy and fed-up drivers and from the article that I have read in Monday’s Estia Newspaper (June 25th) written by a fed up journalist who was trying to get to a wedding there were many more kilometers of blocked traffic from the amount that I imagined there would be!!
Don’t mistake my thoughts, I love to run and the night runs have an extra special magic feeling to them, but both sides need to be happy.
Otherwise, the race was great and the feeling of running down Syggrou Avenue with no cars was memorable too!!
Next year the 23rd of June is on a Sunday so hopefully being on a slower day, less people will be unhappy and less articles will be written!!
run2stars 