Thessaloniki Night Half Marathon

Thessaloniki race review

I ran the Thessaloniki Night Half Marathon last year (in 2015).

The scenario:

I travelled to Europe after working in Asia for three years, where 95�f my running had been after dark. This race was my fifth half marathon in five weeks. I had never broken 2 hours for the Half, but Id been planning a sub 2 hour finish in this race for about nine months. I travelled to Greece specifically for the run and knew it would be the highlight of my Europe trip.

I was mentally focused and energised. Im not a morning person (. I love night running, and historic, exotic courses are just my thing! I had been watching the YouTube videos of the race for months and imagining the feeling of running around the harbour, being part of a festive atmosphere and crossing the finish line (at night). I am usually a pretty fussy person but I was determined to overlook any inconvenience and not let petty issues get in the way of enjoying this event something I struggle with at times.

That said, with what I had built-up in my own mind, it is difficult for me to review this race objectively.

What I liked:

* I broke the 2 hour mark for the first time in my life at night, on a flat course; and took 7 minutes off my PB. Yeah!

* The scenery was beautiful. It is an amazing route along the harbour and through the streets of a historic city, at night. Wow!!

* I loved the medal, and the lightweight jacket included with the €55 race pack.

* There were plenty of aid stations with water and sports drinks (and helpful volunteers).

* The race finishes at the White Tower which is lit-up and looks wonderful at after dark.

* The temperature was perfect. Being at night it is very cool and perfect for PR times.

* The promotional videos for the event (especially this years with video footage from a drone) . You think Wow! I have to go there!

* At the race packet collection point I found smooth organisation and friendly, no nonsense help. It was straightforward and easy.


What I didnt like:

* I am certain the race was only about 20.7 km, not 21.095. This is inexcusable. An absolute disgrace. I usually cover 21.15 or 21.2 km in races. My Garmin never gives me problems with accuracy. So I took my medal and free water and ran through the finish line for another 450 metres. I wanted to correctly record the half-marathon distance on my Strava and Nike Running profiles. Not surprisingly, I have since noticed that of the 25 other competitors in the race whose results are visible on my Strava activity, only TWO have a recorded distance of 21.1 km. I was not alone far from it. My race finishing time vs. the Garmin time, and the paces corresponding to it, equated to about two and a half minutes, or about 450 metres short, compared with my GPS information. Exactly how much short I will probably never know. How can an officially certified race be short of the international standard 21.0975 distance?

* The big, electronic race timer screen was turned off when I crossed the finish line so I did not get to see my PR time at one hour etc. as I finished the race. In the photos of the winning runners who finished earlier than me, it was “on” for them, but when I crossed at 1 hr 53 it was “off”.

* There were no toilets at the starting line. When I say no toilets I dont mean only two or three. I mean ZERO. I spent 25 minutes before the race walking around trying to find them. I saw long lines of athletes snaking out of Starbucks and the nearby restaurants opposite the starting line which reinforced my belief that they were just not provided. Im not the sort to ask for help. Instead of taking my place in the corral and relaxing I was wandering the streets looking for a toilet. Perhaps I should have asked for help, but as I say, I walked around the nearby area and couldnt find any race port-a-loos. In the end, I did what many other athletes were doing and used a wall behind some bushes in an alleyway opposite the harbour, 5 minutes before the race started. Not ideal.

* There was no expo at all. After looking at the promotional videos and articles on the race website I envisaged something like a Rock and Roll Marathon or major event for the city which businesses, local running companies and citizens got behind. There were no give-aways, samples, displays etc; just the running pack. Perhaps I over-estimated the situation but I feel the organisers put more time into commissioning glossy promotional videos and hyping-up the event than they do in getting the little things right on the night. I can not relate to the Night street party with live music promise as advertised on the mynextrun.com listing for the event.

* I've ran in races in China where the organisers often hire people to take photos and provide them for free. I hardly expect this to happen. I bought some outstanding race photos from the Tallinn race a month earlier for only €3.99. I expected that in an event of this size with over 20,000 total entrants, photographers would be taking photos. The race website links to a professional photographer. After trawling through 600 or so unsorted pics on the photographers own website I couldnt find any of myself. They are great photos but theres no way to filter by race number or name. They didnt seem to have been taken for this purpose. Very, very disappointing.

* The race website has versions in Greek and in English. However any updates and news leading up to the event only seem to be released in Greek both on their web page and on Facebook. Be prepared to do a lot of cutting and pasting of Greek into Google Translate in the weeks before the race.

* I chose my nationality as Australian when I registered in mynextrun.com. Somehow, on the results page of the race web site, my nationality had changed to British. A minor issue in itself, but I am left wondering how such a thing could occur. Ive never even been to Britain!

* They have a great logo for the race with English and Greek versions on the race web site. The merchandise provided as part of the race pack is only in Greek. The race medal and its ribbon are likewise only in Greek. Another trivial issue but I would have thought that a race advertised as bring an International Half Marathon would in fact be a little more...international.

Discussion:

It rained for the first hour of this race. Perhaps the rain changed everything significantly. Some of my criticism could be the result of weather outside the organisers control. Yet surely weather would be planned for in the 4th edition of a yearly event. I do however find it impossible to believe toilets would be absent, course length would be incorrect, race photos would be unavailable or the timing would be turned-off in, say, Beijing, Helsinki, Tallinn, or Melbourne. It just wouldnt be. It wasnt.

Despite the shabby organisation, would I return to this race or recommend it to a friend despite the things I disliked about it? You bet. In an instant! Thessaloniki at night is the ultimate destination race. It would take monumental incompetence to ruin what deserves to be an iconic race. I highly recommend this event to anyone. Perhaps you wont have the high expectations I had going into the race and wont notice the imperfections.

I also highly recommend this web site (mynextrun.com). As a visitor to Europe it really made the planning of my races so easy. I couldnt believe simple it was to plan, book and pay for multiple races in multiple cities through one web site. It is an outstanding service.

I will have to just imagine the atmosphere and overall experience on a night that wasnt so inclement. Then again, I never run in the rain. When my earphones stopped working, my shoes filled with water and I was wringing moisture out of my shirt, these things seemed to add to the experience rather than detract from it! Wow, it was great!!

As an aside to this long review I will recommend the under-rated Sofia Marathon (and accompanying 20 km race) which was held the week prior to the Thessaloniki International Night Half Marathon. It cost a ridiculous €5, was well-organised, on a flat course and included TWO great shirts plus a finisher’s medal. If you have a chance to run the Sofia race, rest/recover in lovely Bulgaria for a few days, then take a (cheap) bus ride to/from Thessaloniki like I did, I am certain you’ll be glad you did!