2nd Aristotelus Path Race, Nafpaktia 20141005

2nd race of Aristotelus Path organized by Lepanto runners from nearby Nafpaktos. Route was exactly the same as a year before. It can be described as road-path-road type of race with sections on dirt roads and on the forest paths are mixed. Very fast race, pretty cool for someone just starting mountain running as kind of easy transition.

0,0k at 290m - start from cultural center of Agripidokampos, next to the church, where the office of the race was located. The first 2.5k is on pure asphalt, something rather unique for mountain running, that causes the race to start pretty fast. I tried to keep up with leading runners, logging first 3k with 3:45-3:50/km tempo!! Of course this also meant peaking my HR to about 175-180! Anyway, it's asphalt, so easy and fast.

2,5k at 240m - Right and off the asphalt. For some few meters still with concrete road, then dirt road, over the small bridge and into the path we went. This is also the lowest point of the race at about 215m. Since the race consists of about 6 sections of roads and 6 of paths, I call it the "1st path". And it's awesome, inside the forest, just next to small spring, with a little ascent but still pretty fast (I logged 4:35/km tempo). Now we run in the mountains :-D

5,0k at 285m - First aid station and 2nd path. I didnt bother grabbing any drink yet (very early) and jumped into the forest for a big climb. This 2nd path and later 3rd one are the most uphill section in the race, climbing ~200m in something like 1k of distance. Again they are in deep forest and are awesome. This is when I already started to feel fatigue and my HR was skyrocketing with above 180bpm... Anyway, I survived and reached the top to the next dirt road.

6,3k at 480m - Station and dirt road. Much appreciated end of climb! I started on dirt road a bit easy to restore some energy in my legs and later pushed it much faster (~4:10/km!! nice). Like other dirt road sections, quite boring :-P

7,7k at 375m - Down with 4th path. Finally of the dirt road (I noticed I am not really any good on fast sections where everybody seems to catch up on me, and prefer by far the paths where I seems to perform better). This time downhill with the path, full speed, full fun! Finally!

8,9k at 275m - Back on dirt road, another station (quite a lot for such a short race ?!). Fun part didnt last long :-/ again on dirt road and this time with flat/uphill. Good thing was I managed to keep my HR steady, still felt pretty strong and the section was not long one.

9,6k at 300m - 5th path with climb. By "not long" I really meant very short, not even 1km. Anyway, 5th path was again very nice, a bit less grade but a bit more technical! My type of mountain running. I did it pretty fast, confident and didnt loose much energy.

10,6k at 400m - Dirt road again :-/ What can I say... sucks. Not only boring, but a bit uphills and I only managed something like 4:45-4:50/km and this one was a bit longer section (~2k). This is where I lost chances to catch up to 6th guy as he appeared to be much better "flat" runner. Bummer. Anyway, since I lost it, I decided to have some Coke on the station at the end.

12,8k at 430m - Last station, last path. 6th path again was pure fun, all downhill, quite technical, I really enjoyed it after 2k on the road!

14,2k at 320m - back on dirt road, last stretch to the finish line. I did run fast but not 110% :-P as I already knew noone will pass me nor I will not catch up to the 6th runner. Nice to finish in that comfort :-D

15,3k at 290m - Official time 1:19:34 (about 8 minutes behind the leader). 7th overall and 3rd in my age category (Men 30-39), that actually gave me a nice cup to go home with :-D (see photo).

The race is nice (and is very close from my home town). I do have mixed feelings as the paths are all awesome, but the dirt roads sections simply killed me - boring, boring and boring. I wish they would alter the route somehow, reducing roads and increasing paths and maybe overall distance too...