Sport: For Greece

The men who run the 26-mile Boston Marathon each year on Patriots’ Day* have a variety of motives. At least one 200-pounder runs it to reduce. Stylianos Kyriakides ran it last week because he is a Greek.

Stylianos is a 35-year-old electric-bill collector, holder of the Greek marathon† title, who lived through the misery of wartime Athens. A year ago he had an idea: Greece’s first victory in 50 years of Boston Marathons might dramatize his struggling nation, gain U.S. aid for his hungry countrymen.

By covering his bill-collecting rounds on the double, he saved time to toughen up his feet with twelve-mile runs in Peloponnesian stone quarries. His family made sacrifices to build him up: “Sometimes I eat meat, my wife eat peas.” When he arrived in Boston, sportswriters regarded him as a nice feature-story subject, but no one thought he had a chance against defending champion Johnny Kelley or Montreal’s three-time winner, Gerard Cote.

On the morning of the race, Stylianos got a letter from Athens signed by his three-year-old daughter Helen, ordering him to win. Over the hills & dales of Ash land, Framingham, Natick and Wellesley he ran as he had never run before. When

*A state holiday in Massachusetts, on the anni versary of Paul Revere’s ride. This year the marathon was held a day late because Patriots’ Day fell on Good Friday.

† First marathon course: Marathon to Athens (22 miles). Date: 490 B.C. Sole runner: Phei-Athens’ dippides, the victory over messenger the who Persians, brought and the then news fell of dead.