Athens Classic Marathon Athens Classic Marathon The Athens Classic (authentic) Marathon is an annual marathon road race held in Athens, Greece, normally in early November. The race attracted 43,000 competitors in 2015 of which 16,000 were for the 42.195 km 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. The marathon course is based on the legend from which the race gained its name: Pheidippides, a messenger in Ancient Greece, ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory
Battle of Athens (1941) Battle of Athens (1941) The Battle of Athens (also known as the Battle of Piraeus harbor) on 20 April 1941 was a dog-fighting air battle over Athens fought for half an hour between the RAF and the Luftwaffe towards the end of the Battle of Greece. Marmaduke Pattle died in the battle in which Roald Dahl also fought; he describes it in his second autobiography, "Going Solo" and in the short story 'Katina' which can be found in the book "The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories". A somewhat different account of this battle together with citations will be found