Our journey started from Lamia at 9.00 in the morning, weather conditions comfortably cloudy, temperature warm. Lamia provides Greece with some of its biggest agricultural areas. We ran through a vast flatland of green fields, stretching out far towards the distant mountains. Here our runner Petr from Bulgaria spontaneously decided to do a bit of tilling. He’s from the countryside; he saw a hoe…need I say more.

Today was really the day of the police. We had an intrepid officer run with the whole team for 50 metres. Well, it should have been the whole team… During this time yours truly was legging it off down a road in the wrong direction, and I had already covered quite a bit of distance, when a police car honked behind me. Happy to have the police with me I gave a friendly wave, which was reciprocated. Very soon it became clear, though, in which direction I was going, the wrong one, so I hopped in the car and got a VIP ride back to the team. Later in the day another very helpful police officer assisted in cooling down an over-cooked runner, by soaking him with a bottle of water. So, thank you very much police.

A particularly picturesque area was one with waves of golden fields undulating all around us in a cereal sea.

This was on the way to Farsala, where allegedly a battle took place between Julius Ceaser and Pompeios over some horses in 48 B.C.

A junior basketball team dressed in blue joined us into the square of the town, where we got a hearty welcome from the Deputy Mayor and other officials.

We received a medal specially designed for us, together with some juicy refreshments. The people there were really “revved up” about the run. On the way to Larisa part of the Team did some speed work, running 3k each at a rapid pace. This was along a cosy country road, surrounded by orchards and vegetable fields.

In Larisa we took part in the town’s annual River Festival. It was the climactic day of this seven-day event, and we started by running up and down the stalls, greeted by cheering and clapping. Then we got on stage to be welcomed by the Deputy Mayor and other officials. They were also very excited and enthusiastic about the run, and invited us to come to their festival every year! After this we were invited by the City Council and a local restaurant to an abundant and delicious dinner. There the day came to a close.

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Distance: 140km

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