“The most important thing is to listen to our body and to be gentle with it” . Our friend Petra Lieberherr from Switzerland is the 3rd Trail Girl, who crossed Faethon’s Trail Finish Line and we are very glad to post her personal Trail Story. Congratulatios Petra, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!
“Running has been a great way to get to know this country and to discover new places all around Greece. More than two years ago, I traveled for the first time to Greece and I instantly fell in love with this country – especially with its pristine nature and the enchanting mountains. That is where my journey of trail running actually started.
On the weekend of the 9th of July my journey brought me to Faethon Trail, which takes place on the west side of Mount Olympus, an area still unknown to me till this day. I have been to Olympus several times but never to the west side of the mountain range. So I was excited to see, what would await me over here.
And I didn’t get disappointed. The race started on the central square of Kokkinopilos, the highest village on Olympus on 1150m. From here we crossed the narrow roads of the village until we reach a forest road. A gradual incline brings us further up and away from the village into the beautiful pine forest of Kokkinopilos.
After some kilometeres the route turns to the left and finally we hit the trails. A steep downhill brings speed into the race and I am delighted by the terrain. I definitely prefer to run on small paths than forest roads and I feel that this is my playground and where I have my strength. Running on trails gives me such an incredible sense of freedom, the feeling of flying and moving in sync with nature.
The path brings us further down to Vrysi Tsourekas which also marks the halfway point of the race. Now the race turns and we are making our way back to Kokkinopilos over forest roads and on a nice trail along a small stream – this scenery definitely reminded me of my home country Switzerland. After 14 kilometers we reach again the main square and I am happy to cross the finish line as third woman, which felt to me like a great success and a reassurance, that I am gaining back my strength and health after a time with fragile health condition which resulted in limited training possibilities. It just showed me, that the most important thing is, to listen to our body and to be gentle with it, you might come back even stronger.
Faethon Trail is definitely a fast race due to its terrain and race profile, which is rather flat and not very technical. But never the less still challenging and beautiful and on top very well organized. For me one of the best part besides of running, is the great sense of community you get on these events, from hospitable race organizers to the family like atmosphere amongst the runners. Maybe I will be back next year for the Sky Race :-)”
