Overcoming the odds to triumph in an ultramarathon

It may have been just a few hours before she was due for surgery, but for Amalia Matthaiou, the morning of January 26 started like any other: She put on her running shoes and hit the streets of Thessaloniki. It was a habit she just couldn't give up, even in the face of a potentially fatal illness.

The days that followed, when she had a malignant lump removed from her left breast, required patience. The threat may have been removed, her doctors assured her, but she still had to face a lot of post-surgical pain and radiation therapy. The doctors and fellow runners were not surprised, however, when, less than four months after the operation, Matthaiou was standing at the starting line of an ultramarathon - with the finish line lying 215 kilometers away.

"It was the experience of a lifetime," the 49-year-old athlete told Kathimerini. "I didn't care if I ran 50 meters or...