Zagori Marathon 2016, Zagorochoria 20160723

The North Face Zagori Mountain Running, Marathon distance.
One of the most recognized mountain races in Greece through famous Vikos canyon with crystal clear waters of river Voidomatis. I have already ran Zagori half-marathon race back in 2014, so after two additional years of running (and I like to believe, 2y of progress), time came to run the bigger race! (not the biggest, as there is still 80km TeRA left to run :-P). I did solid preparation with lots of kilometers, but not as many as I would like were on trails. Also for past 3-4 months I have been twisting my ankle constantly and was not sure how well it will go this time. So full of hopes but also full of question marks, I set to run ~half a day in Zagorian sun!

Start in Kipoi, so same as for half marathon race, and actually first 2.5k are almost the same as well. Race starts pretty nicely with mild up and downs, no big climbs nor technical difficulties until famous bridge of Kokkori. There was a tiny water station and the race entered Vikos canyon fo next 14-15km!
The route in the canyon was mostly flat/descending, but it had it's difficulties in few climbs and technical sections. All in all I predicted that I should run the first 17km of the race (aid station before the first big climb) in about 1:40'. And this is exactly how it went :-D It felt slow at some points, but finally I got there exactly on time. Quick gel and iso drink, bottle refill and off I went power hiking steep climb towards Papigko. It felt fairly easy and I even though that maybe I should be running more, but I abandoned that though quickly reminding myself how much I still have left to climb...
I reached Papigko in ~2:15', again exactly how I planned :-D I spent even more time in the station, eating much more food (including fruits and nuts). A lot of runners spent only few seconds just refilling theirs bottles, but I knew they will pay for that rush (been there and paid my mistakes). In ~6h race, 2min spent even on every station mean nothing! So after about 3' I left very fresh, full and strong. Quickly I reached Mikro Papigko with mixed up and downs, asphalt and trails, to start THE climb of the race: continues 5km with +900m elevation gain. I decided that I will not run a single meter during this climb and instead power hike all of it, but power hike hard and with steady rhythm. And so I did! I was still feeling great, I was passing other runners, my legs felt strong, I kept climbing the altitude surprisingly easily. I did a tiny mistake though, not refilling my bottle at one of early springs just outside of Mikro Papigko and almost run out of supply before reaching Astraka refuge (end of climb and next aid station). But towards the end I reduced drinking and got there exactly with 50ml of warm water... ufff.
Time: 3:35', again exactly according to my plans (WTF? :-P). This was probably the longest I spent on the station during the whole race. It offered nice shadows and pretty solid variety of food. They even gave me as many gels I wanted (ok I took 2, not that much). And after about 4-5' I left for a short descent and later climb again to Robozi lake. This section was the first one that felt more difficult that I imagined looking at profile and studying the route before the race. Also, it was the first one I didnot know! (never passed these trails) I walked quite a lot and started to feel that my race is slowing down a bit... But I reached the lake (and station) in just under 30' so after all it wasn't that bad of performance. And good news was that I felt good even in 30C heat and full sun (zero shadow from Mikro Papigko!). The station offered only water so I had my share and refilled my bottle to continue fairly flat section through the plateau.
Even though this part was mainly descending, the terrain was quite rough and raw, also I still had at least 10-11km to do, so all in all I was not pushing anything yet, but rather maintained easy and steady pace (probably sthg like 6:30-7:00/km). I kept going like this until ~35th kilometer where a mild ascent begun, all the way to last big aid station at 37th kilometer. For last 30min, even though I could see way to the front and way to the back, I didnot notice any runner around. This kind of settled my pace as there was not big reason to push thing hard as no one was chasing me, nor I could catch anyone...
On the aid station I didnot find promised gel, but I was ready for that keeping the one from Astraka for 'emergency' like that :-P Instead I just drunk iso drink, lots of water (really getting hot at that point) and some pieces of water melon. Of I went for last 4.5km with steep and technical descent through 'the steps of Tsepelovo' down to the village and finish line. There was one more water station about 2km later that I of course stopped at and drunk quick cup. Not more than 15' later I entered the village, and through the square, got to the finish line at local folk museum :-D Yeah! Done!

Time: 5:29'44! Great! It was actually my very optimistic plan (I was rather thinking about 5:45' which sounded more reasonable for myself).
Position: 8th! Wow! And.. I was only ~40" behind 7th runner?!?! WTF? How didnt I see him on the trail?? I felt pretty fresh considering the effort so it's a pitty I didnt catch on him :-/ (always whyning heheh).