Dean Karnazes to run 153-mile ultramarathon eating only ancient foods

Running 153 miles with modern fuelling methods is tough enough as it is, but Dean Karnazes is planning to attempt to run the Spartathlon eating only the food which was available to Pheidippides, the Greek hero who ran the routes from Athens to Sparta to deliver the news of a Greek military victory over the Persian army.

Karnazes is planning to run the race drinking only water and eating only a paste made from local items available in the Mediterranean diet and some cured meat.

“I am both excited and anxious for this endeavour and have been training hard in these ancient ways,” said Karnazes in a press release. “Being of Greek ancestry, the route of the Spartathlon passes nearby the village of my forefathers and I hope to experience some of those same feelings and emotions that Pheidippides would have felt 2,500 years ago.”

The Spartathlon, an event that runs the route from Athens to Sparta, ending at the statue of Leonidas I, a warrior-king of the ancient city-state, began in the 1980s to see if a human can actually run the route Pheidippides is said to have run in 36 hours. The event is now held each year.