MARATHON EFFORT
Posted by Chris Alefantis - 18/11/2008
Go Greece! The Indefatigable Extreme Team
Almost 1.300 pounds raised during the Athens Classic Marathon for the Homeless World Cup Foundation (and we are still counting)
It is indeed an Extreme Team this bunch of friends from Greece. In June 2007, the inaugural Greek Extreme Team took to the streets and mountains of beautiful Alonissos Island, as part of last year’s "Team Appeal for Copenhagen 2007". There were four members, last year, who set out to conquer the Alonissos Trail Marathon, aiming to raise 700 pounds to contribute to the worldwide appeal for the Homeless. All four (Gabi, Yiannis, Nick and Chris) managed to complete the 42.195 kilometres of what is a very difficult marathon course. More importantly, the fundraising target was comfortably achieved. In all, we were very proud to contribute 977 pounds to "Team Appeal for Copenhagen 2007" (that is, almost 20% more than initially targeted). It was a great achievement attributed to the sea of friends of supporters of the Greek Extreme Team who eagerly poured in their monetary donations.
This year the team members had their eyes set on the Athens Classic Marathon (Sunday, November 9), with things being a bit different compared to 2007. Firstly, the group expanded from four (4) to twelve members (12) -all of them are amateur runners, eager to add some extra purpose to the fun of running a marathon!
The fund raising target was raised from 700 to 800 British pounds and we all took to the streets and parks of Athens training hard and inviting the support of our friends.
Pasta Party
Furthermore, this time around, we added an extra (and delicious) dimension to our fundraising effort: We threw in a pasta party at a great restaurant in central Athens (its name is “Querido Coucou” and the address 78 Themistokleous Street, Exarhia Sqaure. Not to be missed, if you visit the Greek capital). Tina the owner provided (at no charge) the place, the music, the spaghetti dishes and the drinks and we took to the task of filling up the place. And we did. Over 70 people attended our pasta party, contributing some 635 British pounds to our fundraising target. It was a night of great fun, surely to be re-enacted in the course of next year’s fundraising marathon (yes, we are already making our plans for next year).
Marathon Day
It was another glorious day on Sunday, November 9. Somewhere among the 10.000-strong crowd that lined up at the start, just before 9.00 am local time, were the twelve members of the Greek Extreme Team. All 12 managed to cross the finish line (with Gabi embarrassing us all, finishing after 3:23:00, well ahead of everyone else). All 12 did superbly in making their very best toward contributing to the Homeless World Cup Foundation.
Not over yet
The fundraising effort continues. As of Monday night, November 17, £ 1,271.00 had been raised. If you wish to make a contribution, please refer to www.justgiving.com/teamgreece.
Our team members
Gabi Naegele (the only woman of the Greek Extreme Team so far), Vasilis Papastergiou, Sergios Milis, Vaios Mesdanitis, Aristotelis Papageorgiou, Nikos Valatsos, Giorgos Frantzoglou, Giannis Tsilis, Periklis Papapanagis (our team's coach), Kostas Kourtelis, Giorgos Moshos, and Chris Alefantis.
These are the names of the members of the Greek Extreme Team for 2008. All of them have already committed themselves for 2009. We would be very happy to hear from people from other countries who may wish to join us. Marathon runners, in particular, who would like to run the Athens Classic Marathon (which is the real thing in terms of history and course difficulty…) are vigorously encouraged to join our 2009 adventures. For more information: chrisa@galera.gr
