The trip

One of the biggest potential causes for upsets or delays with the idea of running a marathon in every country is unfortunately war. In March 2026 the latest development in the ongoing Middle East wars was a massive escalation after the US began bombing Iran with Israel and Iran responded by bombing every US ally of any sort in range. The [NAME] UK military base in Cyprus fell into this category and received what I think was a single successful attack.

A few weeks earlier, I had booked a solo weekend in Pafos whilst Ciara was going to Galway with her friends. The situation seemed to be relatively calm between the strike and my flight so I decided to still go for it. Luckily it was completely fine whilst I was over there.

The next problem I was faced with was trying to do it without taking a day off work. I had to pick the number up on Saturday but there was no Saturday morning flight that would get me there on time (at least not one that still had seats available). The solution was a master class in route planning.
1. Friday night flight landing after midnight in Warsaw
2. First flight out on Saturday morning to Pafos
3. A cheap hotel fairly close to the finish line with 12pm checkout
4. A 7am race start
5. A taxi booked back to the airport for 12pm on Sunday
6. And a 2:30pm return flight

When I got to Pafos I picked up the number straight away then checked in to the hotel. I had a very rare nap seeing as I hadn’t exactly sleep the night before on the planes or in Warsaw airport. After that I walked to the Irish pub down the road (O’Neill’s I believe, but not part of the chain) and had a very mediocre pasta for dinner.

The 7am start meant an early alarm. We got on the coaches taking us out of town to the start line… just down the road from the military base. It was quite cold at 6am when we got off the coach so I was glad for my extra layer and did a bit of a warm up up and down the road.

The race was effectively just heading back to Pafos Castle with a slightly indirect route with a few twists and turns. The first few miles especially were very quiet, but peaceful, as there was unsurprisingly no support lining the road.

I took the first half deliberately slightly slowly as the main objective was to get the marathon done in 4 hours to have enough time to get back to the hotel and change and checkout by 12. In this race more than ever, I simply could not get injured and have to walk for three hours.

I felt comfortable as we passed half way. At 14-15 miles, the route followed a spur off the main road followed by a hairpin and back in the same direction to the main road before continuing back to pafos. As we ticked passed 16 miles on this branch, I started counting the people coming back in the other direction and got to 120 by the turnaround point.

I then decided to effectively go hunting and just see what happens to try to understand my general level of fitness. I picked the pace up and started overtaking one by one. I definitely accelerated too much for miles 17 and 18 but corrected myself to be able to keep up a reasonable pace through to the finish line.

The overtakes continued and I eventually got it down to what I thought was about 60 people in front of me towards the finish. As we came on to the waterfront with about half a mile to go, someone came up on my shoulder and I encouraged him to push with me and race to the line. He then slowed and said he don’t have it in him so I jokingly said that I’ll see him again when he overtakes me on the line. I pushed on and didn’t see him again… until he dipped ahead of me at the line. I laughed in defeat.

After a quick joke with him, i was then onto the next challenge of catching my flight. I picked up my bag from the collection point and walked as quickly as I could back to the hotel. The 3:24 finish had given me enough time for a bath which was an unexpected luxury before the flight. I checked out at 12 on the dot, made it to the airport issue free and made it home to my ow bed with one more country under my belt.

Evidence