“Well let me just tell you, 20 extra miles is what crazy people do; what I did,” said junior Payton Williams on training for the famous Athens Marathon on its original course. “But in all that craziness, I got to truly know myself. I pushed myself to the breaking point, miles 20 to 26, and discovered my thoughts, beliefs, and perseverance I did not know I had.”
This semester, the nine students at the Harding University Greece (HUG) program participated in several extreme activities including the marathon. Students were also able to bungee jump the Corinth Canal and hike up Mount Olympus.
Williams and sophomore Daniel Nelms were the only students out of the nine who participated in all three activities.
“I wanted a challenge,” Nelms said. “Whether it was something that scared me or something that scared others to do.”
While only three students chose to bungee jump, this was the first semester the entire group chose to hike Mount Olympus.
It took the group two days to complete the three mile uphill hike to the summit.
“Our whole group made the trek up and down, following and leaning on each other as we went, sweating and hurting together but smiling the whole way,” Nelms said. “It’s just more fun in my mind to complete a big goal together with your friends rather than by yourself.”
Williams said her favorite activity was the marathon, even though she had no intention of running it when she arrived.
Visiting faculty for the semester, business professor Rich Brown and his wife Laura Brown, are active runners. Rich Brown has run several marathons and ultramarathons before. They chose to be faculty in the fall in order to run the marathon.
They acted as coaches for the three students that chose to run. Rich Brown said him and his wife acted in a good cop/bad cop fashion while training throughout the semester.
“They did train hard,” Rich Brown said. “In the last couple of weeks we both became encouraging coaches and tried to have them prepared with a plan and mental attitude that would help them finish even if they felt like quitting. They did finish and we are sure proud of them.”
When the students were not jumping off bridges, running miles upon miles, or climbing mountains, they spent their time traveling through Greece, Israel and Turkey.
“It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that in one semester I went bungee jumping, hiked Mount Olympus, ran the Athens Marathon, followed the journey of Paul all over Europe and Asia, and walked in the places where Jesus himself was born, baptized, crucified, resurrected, transfigured, as well as where he lived and preached,” Williams said.
