Yiannis Kouros (Greek: Γιάννης Κούρος),(born February 13, 1956 in Tripoli, Greece) is a Greek ultramarathon runner based in Melbourne. He is sometimes called the "Running God" or the "Pheidippides Successor".[1] He holds every men's outdoor road world record from 100 to 1,000 miles and every road and track record from 12 hours to 6 days.[2] In 1991, he starred as Pheidippides in the movie The Story of the Marathon: A Hero's Journey, which chronicles the history of marathon running.
Kouros came to prominence when he won the Spartathlon in 1984 in record time[3] and the Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1985 in a record time of 5 days, 5 hours, 7 minutes and 6 seconds. He beat the previous record held by Cliff Young.[4]
Kouros has also written over 1,000 poems (several of which appear in his book Symblegmata (Clusters)) and the book The Six-Day Run of the Century.
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According to the International Association of Ultrarunners, as of October 2010. He says his secret is when other people get tired they stop, I DON'T. I take over my body with my mind I tell it that it's not tired and it listens.
| 100 miles | Road | 11h 46min 37s | 13.665 km/h |
| 1000 km | Track | 5d 16h 17min 00s | 7.338 km/h |
| 1000 km | Road | 5d 20h 13min 40s | 7.131 km/h |
| 1000 miles | Road | 10d 10h 30min 36s | 6.424 km/h |
| 12 h | Road | 162.543 km | 13.545 km/h |
| 12 h | Track | 162.400 km | 13.533 km/h |
| 24 h | Road | 290.221 km | 12.093 km/h |
| 24 h | Track | 303.506 km | 12.646 km/h |
| 48 h | Road | 433.095 km | 9.023 km/h |
| 48 h | Track | 473.797 km | 9.875 km/h |
| 6 days | Road | 1028.370 km | 7.142 km/h |
| 6 days | Track | 1038.851 km | 7.214 km/h |