Founded in 1921 to honor soldiers who fell during the Great War, the Comrades Marathon (approximately 90 km, in South Africa) has become the world's largest and oldest ultra-marathon. A look back at its history, its starting gun rule, and its Ubuntu spirit, where community matters more than the clock.
In 490 BC, an Athenian messenger named Pheidippides reportedly covered 246 kilometers in a day and a half to reach Sparta before the Battle of Marathon. Two thousand five hundred years later, runners set off every autumn on that same route—with 36 hours to make it out alive. Welcome to the Spartathlon.
Behind Austria, Hungary, and the USSR of the Cold War, a quiet marathon in Czechoslovakia forged the first friendships that gave birth to the magazine Spiridon. A look back at the Košice Marathon.
In 1962, Käthi Knuchel completed the Biel 100km race. A rare archive that reveals a forgotten path of women's running.
Murten-Fribourg, a legendary Swiss race, was also a symbol of freedom for running. In 1975, Odette and Joseph Vetter ran it in Spiridon gear despite women being forbidden from competing.
The MIUT in Madeira is a unique crossing between ocean, ridges, Laurisilva forest and dizzying trails. A race selected by Spiridon.
The 20 km of Brussels, a legendary race born in 1980, tells the story of a popular race that has become a major European running event.
The Barkley Marathons, a legendary race in Tennessee, embodies a free and radical vision of running, deeply connected to the Spiridon spirit.
Created in 1952 as a simple winter hike between Saint-Étienne and Lyon, the SaintéLyon was anything but a race at the outset. At that time, running at night in winter was almost utopian. The first participants, headlamps in hand and city shoes on their feet, braved the cold, the snow, and the slippery trails in a spirit of adventure and camaraderie.
This marathon is a forgotten legend, yet it is essential to our history. Thanks to our Spiridon archives and those of Neuf-Brisach Athlétisme, we retrace the steps of our pioneers.
