Feature: Restaurant owner tops 100-mile ultra trail race in Greece

The owner of a restaurant completed his 100-mile (about 161 km) mountainous journey in 24:31:14, winning the 5th Rodopi Advendurun 100 miles (ROUT) in northern Greece on Saturday. An army officer and a bank employee secured 2nd and 3rd places respectively in one of Greece's toughest trail races.

Pavlos Mavroyiannis, 47, rang the finish bell at 6:31 am in almost the same darkness as he and the other 114 runners departed one day earlier from the tiny forest village of Erymanthos, about 700 km northeast of Athens.

"I am very happy that I completed the race, but I am too tired to talk too much now. I need to take a rest," Mavroyiannis told reporters and organizers upon arrival.

Army officer Nikolaos Sidiropoulos finished second with 24:59:22, while bank employee Efstrations Rallis came third less than one minute later with 25:00:15.

Although suffered ankle injury from a recent long-distance running, the love for ultra trail race and the friendly atmosphere brought Sidiropoulos to Rodopi Advendurun 100 miles (ROUT) for the second time. He finished in 4th place in last year's ROUT.

"It is a difficult race. For most of the time, you are running alone. You must challenge yourself," Sidiropoulo told Xinhua.

Sidiropoulo said he feels the atmosphere of a family from co-runners, organizers and volunteers during the race.

"Immediately after I said I wanted to have some chicken soup, the soup was near my lips," the 39-year-old runner appreciated the help of warm-hearted volunteers deeply.

One could mistakenly thought Rallis, 29, was standing at the start line if there was no mud on his socks and mountain-running shoes as he looked so fit at the finish line of the ROUT.

"I feel very well. It is fantastic. The race is perfect," said Rallis, who ranked 7th in last year's ROUT. He told Xinhua that the amazing forest and well organizing made the ROUT his dream.

However, Rallis told Xinhua later that he was running the ROUT with his knee injury.

"You must learn to run with injury and pain," smiled Rallis under the shining Autumn sun in the forest village.

Christos Katsanos, co-organizer of the ROUT said 115 runners from eight countries, including four ladies, attended this year's ROUT, which was the first 100-mile ultra trail race launched in Greece.

The runners started 6 am on Friday from Erymanthos.

ROUT is a tough adventure footrace for experienced runners who compete in semi-autonomy conditions running along abandoned paths and trails through the Rodopi Mountains National Park.

Katsanos said ROUT is a new approach to trail running races, introducing a new vision on the ultras, the adventure running, by putting athletes and their skills in a serious challenge, and assessing their experience gained by long practice of the sport.

ROUT is calling only experienced trail runners, requiring their maximum of physical and mental endurance.

Runners are expected to complete the 100 miles race, including 8000 meters of positive altitude change, within 40 hours this year. The past record of ROUT was made by Greek runner Nikolaso Petropoulos, who completed the race in 2013 in 23:19:11. Petropoulos, a journalist working for a Greek TV station, ranked 5th this year with 25:50:13.

Ranked 9th and completed with 29:41:21, Oleksii Prokopenko from Ukraine was the first foreign runner to complete this year's race.

"The race was so difficult. At some point, I thought why I am running, I could not make it. But when I am here, I feel great that I still have my arms and legs and body. Now I begin to ask when and where will be the next race," Prokopenko told Xinhua.

Russian software engineer was the first lady to complete this year's ROUT with 30:59:17. Initially intending to break this race's woman record of 29:50:56 made by Rannelle McCoy in 2012, she did not make it as she spent too much time to find the right route.

Being a lady, Tatiana Maslova does not feel any disadvantage for women to compete in long-distance race.

"They are even better than man in terms of endurance," said Maslova, a mother of three children. Endi