The Spetses Mini Marathon
The Spetses Mini Marathon is Communication Lab's annual multi-sport event on Spetses, combining open-water swims across the Kosta strait with foot races of up to 25 kilometres around the car-free island. The 2025 edition was held on 3 and 4 October.
The Spetses Mini Marathon is Communication Lab’s annual multi-sport event on Spetses in the Saronic Gulf, founded in 2011 by Marina Koutarelli under the auspices of the Municipality of Spetses and the Greek National Tourism Organisation. Past fields have exceeded ten thousand entrants, making it the largest multi-sport event in Greece by the organisers’ count. The 2025 edition was held on 3 and 4 October, with swimming events on Saturday and running races on Sunday.
The swimming programme consists of open-water crossings of 1,500 and 3,000 metres over the strait between Spetses and the Peloponnesian mainland at Kosta, swum from the Costa Navarino shore toward the island. The running programme on Sunday includes a five-kilometre course and the 25-kilometre signature race, which circles the entire island on its coastal road, passing the Old Harbour, Bekiris and the waterfront of Dapia. Spetses has restricted private cars from its lanes since the early 1960s.
Spetses played a significant role in the Greek War of Independence, when its shipowning families outfitted a fleet against the Ottoman navy. The 25-kilometre route passes through the town’s Venetian-era captains’ mansions and pine-covered coastal sections.