Spartathlon ultra-distance foot race has been held annually, starting on the last weekend of September, since 1983.  The race traces the original footsteps of Pheidippides, the Athenian runner who ran this distance in 490 BC to ask for Spartan military assistance against the Persian invasion.  However, due to the sacred festival of Carneia, the Athenians and their Plataean allies were left to fight alone and win the historic Battle of Marathon.  Todays runners get 36 hours to run the whole 245.3kms, roughly the equivelant of 6 full Marathons. Spartathlon athletes start the foot race at dawn from the foot of the Acropolis in Athens and head for the Corinth Canal, then onto Ancient Corinth, past Mount Parthenion towards Tegia, then downhill towards Sparta.  The Spartathlon finishes at the statue of Leonidas in Sparta. 

Greek ultra-runner Fotis Zisimopoulos won the 39th 2021 Spartathlon on Saturday 25th September 2021 by an impressive 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Zisimopoulos, 38, covered the 245.3 kilometres (152.85 miles) in 21:57:20, followed by Czech runner Radek Brunner, 46, in 23:17:30 and Milan Sumny, 44, in 23:52:57.  Diana Dzaviza, 34, a Latvian athlete living in Austria, won the women's race, clocking 25:23:59.  The 2021 race started at the foot of the Acropolis hill on Friday morning with 334 athletes from 46 countries and regions taking part.  The competition started after five British Royal Air Force officers tested the course in 1982.  From 1984 the International Association 'Spartathlon' was founded, which since then has continuously organised the famous international ultra-marathon race each September.

Last year for the first time in its history, Spartathlon, which is held under the auspices of the Ministries of Tourism and National Defence, was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  This year it resumed under strict safety measures.  Usually, about a third of participants finish the course each year to get awarded with an olive wreath and a sip of water from the nearby Evrotas River.

Greek veteran runner Yiannis Kouros is regarded as one of the greatest modern ultramarathoners, who won the original Spartathlon in 1983.  The organisers didn't present him with the winners cup, as they didn't believe that any athlete could win the race with his time of 21:53:82 as they had forecast a running time of around 27 hours.  Yiannis Kouros ran again the following year and this occasion recorded a winning time of 20:25:00, which was a long held Spartathlon record that was eventually beaten in 2023 by Fotis Zisimopoulos, winning his third consecutive Spartathlon.  Yiannis Kouros won a record total of four Spartathlons.