Trail Running in Greece: Autumn and Winter 2026 Race Calendar

Summer heat is finally gone, and for trail runners in Greece that means one thing: the real season just opened. Between September 2026 and February 2027 there are more than 70 trail and ultra races on the calendar, from 5km village runs to a 246km race across the Peloponnese. That is too many to cover properly in one article, so here are twelve worth building a weekend or a whole trip around, in the order they happen, followed by the full list so you don't miss anything.

36th Olympic Mountain Marathon 2026 – Litochoro

The Olympic Mountain Marathon starts and finishes at Refuge "D. Moundolas" on September 6, a 41.9km loop with 2,974m of climbing that takes you up toward Petrostrouga on the flank of Mount Olympus. The refuge itself is named after Dimitrios Moundolas, a Greek alpinist who died in an avalanche on Annapurna, which tells you something about the seriousness of the people who run this mountain for fun.

Olympus doesn't need much of an introduction (it's where the twelve gods were supposed to live, in case you slept through that lesson at school), but running on it is a different thing than reading about it. You are on exposed ridgeline for long stretches, the weather changes fast even in early September, and the cutoff times are tight enough that you cannot afford to be a tourist about it. Litochoro itself, at the foot of the mountain, is a proper base for the weekend: gorge walks, tavernas with mountain views, and a town that has been hosting climbers and runners for decades and knows exactly what they need before and after.

KonitsaRace 3 – Mountain Trail Run, Epirus

On the same weekend, September 6, the KonitsaRace 14km takes a very different shape. You start at Konitsa's main square, drop down to the 1871 stone bridge over the Aoos river (the longest single-span stone bridge in Epirus, and yes, the arch really is that big), climb the old path to Stomiou Monastery, then follow the riverside back into town.

This one is short enough to be a good introduction if you've never done a mountain trail race before, and the scenery does a lot of the work for you. Konitsa sits like an amphitheater on the slope of Pindos, and it's the natural gateway to the Vikos Gorge and the Tymfi massif, so if you're already making the trip, give yourself an extra day for the gorge trails or a rafting run on the Aoos.

Oiti Ultra Trail 2026 – Ypati

If you want to go long, Oiti Ultra Trail starts at 23:00 on September 11, a 101.7km night race with 24 hours on the clock and over 5,000m of elevation gain. You start in the dark from Ypati square and spend most of the night and the next day on Mount Oeta.

Mythology says Hercules built his own funeral pyre on this mountain and was carried up to Olympus as a god after it burned. Whether that colors how it feels to be moving through those forests at 3am is a personal question, but the mountain has a weight to it that's hard to explain until you're there. Entry requires proof of previous ultra experience, which is the organizers being honest with you about what this actually is.

Syros Trail Challenge 2026 – Ermoupoli

September 12 brings something completely different: the Syros Trail Challenge 10km starts and finishes at Miaouli Square in Ermoupoli, and 90 percent of the route is cobblestone alleys, stairs, and paths rather than dirt trail. It's a trail race that runs through a city, which is not a contradiction once you've seen Ermoupoli.

Most people picture whitewashed cubes and blue domes when they think Cyclades. Syros is the other version: a 19th century shipping capital with grand neoclassical mansions, a theatre modeled on La Scala, and up the hill in Ano Syros a maze of Venetian alleys under a Catholic cathedral. It's the kind of island where you finish a race and then spend the rest of the day just walking around looking up at buildings, which is not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

20th Hercules Series – Hercules Marathon, Ypati

A day later on the same mountain, September 13, the Hercules Marathon covers 42.6km with 2,727m of gain, 83 percent of it on trail, running the full circuit of Mount Oeta National Park. It's been going since 2007, and by now it's one of the reference mountain marathons in Central Greece, with a cutoff of 10.5 hours and ten aid stations to get you through it.

If Oiti Ultra Trail is the mountain's night face, this is its daytime one, hard but honest, well organized, and finishing back at the medieval castle of Ypati with a pasta party that people who've done it still talk about.

Kalamata Mountain Run 2026 – Kalathi Trail

September 20, and the Kalathi Trail 25km does something few races anywhere can claim: it starts at sea level on Kalamata beach and climbs 1,474m to the summit of Mount Kalathi, at 1,215m. "Sea to Mountain" is the actual name organizers use for it, and it's accurate rather than marketing.

The route passes through Kato and Ano Verga, old settlements half swallowed by olive and walnut trees, and at the top you get the whole Messenian Gulf laid out below you with the Taygetus range behind. Kalamata itself is worth the extra day: it's the olive oil capital of Greece, it rebuilt itself with real character after the 1986 earthquake, and it's twenty minutes from the towers of the Mani peninsula if you want to keep exploring after you've stopped being sore.

44th Spartathlon 2026 – Athens to Sparta

September 26, and this is the one that needs no convincing: the Spartathlon covers 246km from Athens to Sparta with a 36 hour limit. It follows the route Pheidippides is said to have run in 490 BC to ask Sparta for help before the Battle of Marathon, and the modern race exists because five British RAF officers tested in 1982 whether the distance was actually possible to cover on foot in that time. Three of them made it. The race has run every year since 1983.

There isn't much I can add to a race with this much history behind it except this: it is not a race for people chasing a Strava badge. It's 75 checkpoints, two nights if you're slow, and a finish line at the statue of King Leonidas in Sparta that has broken stronger runners than you'd expect. If you're not ready for it yet, go watch it once. It will change how you think about what's possible.

6th Ainos Mountain Marathon 2026 – Kefalonia

The next day, September 27, the Ainos Mountain Marathon 34km starts from Pyrgi village and climbs onto the ridge of Mount Ainos, with 8.5km of running above 1,500m past the summit of Megas Soros at 1,628m. There is a stretch up there with sea views on both sides at once, which the organizers claim might be unique for a ridge run anywhere in the world, and I'm not going to argue with them.

Ainos is a national park since 1962, and two thirds of it is covered by the Kefalonian fir, a tree that grows nowhere else. Wild horses roam higher up. It's also the highest point in the entire Ionian Sea, so on a clear day you're looking at most of the island chain at once.

5th Armeno Gate Trail Race 2026 – Styra, Euboea

October 4, and the Armeno Gate Trail Race 20km starts from Styra's central square and climbs 1,150m through forest roads and trail. It's named after a megalithic gate near the village, part of a set of strange stone structures across the mountainside called the Dragon Houses, huge slabs stacked without any mortar, with a distinctive vented roof that made locals centuries ago assume only dragons could have built them.

Nobody fully agrees on who actually built them or exactly when, which is a rare and honest thing for a tourist attraction to admit. Styra itself is quiet, unpretentious, and close enough to Athens for a proper weekend without a long drive.

Virgin Forest Trail 2026 – Paranesti, Drama

October 22 to 25 is the Virgin Forest Trail festival, and the VFUT 162km is its flagship distance: 6,964m of elevation gain and a 40 hour limit through the Rhodope mountains near the Bulgarian border, one of the more remote corners of the country. This is the 20th edition, and it's grown into one of the biggest trail weekends in Greece, with distances from 10km all the way up to this one.

The name comes from the Frakto forest nearby, registered as protected virgin woodland in 1980 and considered the most significant of its kind left in Europe. Waterfalls up to 70m drop through beech and pine that has never been logged. If you want trail running that feels genuinely wild rather than scenic-wild, this is the one.

Sfakia Sky Marathon 2026 – Anopoli, Chania

October 24, and the Sfakia Sky Marathon is 44km with 3,050m of gain through the White Mountains of Crete, including a "Sea to Summit" section up to Pachnes at 2,454m, the highest peak in the range. You take a ferry to Loutro as part of the logistics, a village with no road access at all, which should tell you what kind of terrain you're dealing with for the rest of the day.

Sfakia has a reputation in Crete for being the region that never fully accepted anyone telling it what to do, Ottomans included, and running through it feels like that history is still in the rock. Entry requires having finished two 21km+ trail races in the last three years, which is the organizers' way of saying this genuinely is not for a first mountain race.

Giona Mountain Race 2026 – Amfissa

November 22 is the debut edition of the Giona Trail 28km, climbing 1,550m through the fir forests of Mount Giona, the fifth highest mountain in Greece at 2,512m. New races are always a bit of a gamble, but this one has the Region of Central Greece and the Municipality of Delphi behind it, and the stated goal is protecting the mountain's trails as much as racing on them, which is a good sign for how it'll be run.

Amfissa itself is a 3,000 year old town twenty minutes from Delphi, so if you've never combined a trail race with an ancient oracle, this is your excuse.

What else is on the calendar

Those twelve are the ones I'd plan a trip around, but they're a small slice of the season. Here is the rest, chronologically, so you can build your own calendar:

September 2026: Goumenissa Night Race 10.3km (5th), Lela Karagianni Memorial Races in Limni (5th-6th), Evrytania Everlap Endurance Series in Karpenisi (5th), Apostolos Silas Trail Adventure in Kavala (6th), Parnonas Trail Race in Arcadia (6th), Voio Race Series in Kozani (6th), Corfu Old Town Trail (12th), Atlas Night Trail Running in Malakasa (12th), Naoussa Vermio Trail (12th-13th), Lailias Mountain Running in Serres (20th), Arachova Trail (20th), Sitia Geopark Trail in Lasithi (20th), Lesvos Trail (20th), Divris Hard Trail Race in Elis (27th), Pierides Muses Mountain Race in Imathia (27th), Derveneia Trail Race in Attica (27th).

October 2026: Kastoria Lake Trail 'n' Run (3rd), Makrakomi Backyard Ultra (3rd), Elafi Parnithas Trail in Attica (4th), Karpenissi Trail (4th), Irakleios Athlos in Achaea (4th), XeSkouriaZo in Chalkidiki (4th), Gomfoi Trail in Trikala (4th), Vytina Forest Trail (11th), Kithaironas Trail in Attica (11th), Tzovaniou Mountain Race in Lefkada (11th), ROUT Classic 100 Miles in Xanthi (15th), Santorini Experience (16th-18th), Kavousi Mountain Half Marathon in Crete (18th), International Ultramarathon Festival Loutraki (22nd-23rd), Road of the Immortals 142km in Arcadia (24th), Parnitha Loop (25th), Imittos Epic and Mad Ascent in Attica (28th).

November 2026: Syzathlos in Thessaloniki (14th), Authentic Phidippides Run (19th), Lailias Wolves Races (20th-21st), GOAT of Methana (21st).

December 2026 to February 2027: Minoan Athlos 70km in Phaistos, Crete (December 6th), Pentelikon Marathon Trail Run near Athens (December 12th), Cretan Backyard Ultra in Heraklion (January 16th), Kalikantzaros Trail in Serres (January 31st).

Check each event page for exact registration windows and course details before you commit, some fill up months in advance and a few require proof of previous distance to enter. Whatever you pick, autumn and winter are when Greek trail running actually shows what it's made of.