We then started the
climb of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Their name in Spanish means snow covered (“sierra”
for mountain and “nevada” for snow covered). We went thru forests and alpine
lakes and reached Reno at 4:06pm. We had
lunch with two train enthusiasts. Steve
was from Iowa and knew a lot about trains.
Barbara was from Ithaca, NY and told us about her daughter an ultra-marathoner
who like Forrest Gump is always running.
I asked her to suggest to her daughter to run the Spartathlon, the 153 miles or 246 kilometers ultra marathon from
Athens to Sparta in Greece. The
Spartathlon commemorates the run of Pheidippides, who in 490 BC, before the
battle of Marathon was sent to Sparta by the Athenians to seek help. According to Herodotus he arrived at Sparta
the day after his departure from Athens! After his return to Athens presumably by
running, Pheidippides fought in Marathon and when the battle was over he ran
the 26 miles back to Athens and announced the victory of the Athenians over the
Persians. The story has it that after he
said “νενικηκαμεν» that
means we won, he died.
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