For nearly 20 years, Yannis Kouros has been at the top of the extreme sport of ultra-marathon running. He holds world records for 12-, 24- and 48-hrs runs, as well as the six-day- and 1,000-mile-races. For all this, and a lot more, he's been made the general secretary of the International Network of Ambassadors of Hellenism.

For runner, writer, poet and painter Kouros, his newest position is more than a formal post. "It calls for a greater moral responsibility to continue to promote Greek culture through the ideals and the guiding principles of athleticism and the arts."

Five years ago, Athens Prefecture began selecting Greeks and non-Greeks from various fields to be ambassadors of Greek culture. In 2000 Kouros was selected for his athletic and cultural activities. Today there are 21 such ambassadors - ranging from an organization for Greek-Zambian friendship to a professor from the University of Chile. In March 2002, the Ambassadors of Hellenism formed a network, in order to coordinate their efforts. They elected Kouros as their general secretary.

Kouros notes that the network is still shaping its plans, "but these will surely aim for the promotion of Greek culture and Greece's reputation world-wide". The Parthenon marbles return and the preservation of the Greek language may also be on the agenda.

Rebel with many causes
Though Kouros is considered one of the world's greatest ultra-marathon runners, he has not always been embraced by the powers-that-be. As he explains in his 1995 autobiographic book The Six-Day Run of the Century, the Tripolis-born runner was deprived of parental, running club and then state support. He ardently believes that these deprivations made him capable of braving the elements, ignoring pain and "befriending his madness".

Ultra-running, Kouros insists, is not about muscle mass and genes. It is a mental sport. "While food, money and affection were in short supply growing up," says Kouros in his book, "the hunger for athletic achievement and the solace of Greek music were in great supply." These would later feed his efforts.

In his teens, Kouros began his life-long study of music, but dreamed of a spot in the national athletic academy. A greedy coach and athletic club snobbery cut that dream short. In 1974, aged 18, Kouros ran his first marathon. But by his early 20s, he was penniless in Athens, with his dreams squashed.

An international career
Then in 1983 Kouros' ultra-marathon career was born simultaneously with creation of the Spartathon, Greece's most prestigious ultra-marathon. n the first year of the 246km Athens-Sparta race, Kouros won it, in 21hrs and 53 mins, three hours ahead of the competition. He proved his performance wasn't a fluke by winning a three-part Austrian race a few weeks later and then, in 1984, by breaking a 72hr race record set in 1882 in the New York Six-Day Run, the gruelling subject of his book.

His mission remains to test the limits of what is assumed to be possible bloody feet and all. "What I achieve is within human limits and many others could do it if they'd try to discover their endurance limits and inner strengths," Kouros has said.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, Kouros raced about five ultra-marathons annually. In 1985 he ran his first, very seminal Sydney-Melbourne race. (In later years, to even out the competition, Kouros would start 12 hours behind.) Despite injuries in 1986/87, he made a mark with races such the 1988 International Association of Ultra-Marathon Runners (IAU) 1,000-mile Sri Chinmoy race in New York.

In 1990, however, Kouros became disappointed with the lack of support from the Greek state and self-exiled himself to Australia. He took a break from running, as his family settled in and Kouros studied music and Modern Greek literature at La Trobe University. After preparing a thesis about Nobel-winning poet Odysseus Elytis, writing music (earning a prize in the Antipodes festival ), and studying for a Masters, Kouros returned to the ultra-marathon world.

In 1994 he took second place in a treacherous, freezing 650km Tasmania race, deciding that seeing his two young girls again was more vital than first place. In a 1996 Coburg race he broke a 24hr record. Then, in 1999, Kouros ran a 1,000km race across Athens and Cyprus. The same year he took first place in a 1,000km-Holland run.

Kouros describes the ecstasy of running as "leaving the self that others construct, to hear your internal voice." Often his favourite music (on headphones or in his mind) provides his pace. Thoughts of his ancestors provide moral support. "I'm not running alone, he writes in his 1995 book, With me are running my grandparents, by great-grandparents, revolutionary heros, Byzantine Diogeneses, ancients, Homeric heroes...I feel their blood, their veins and their fists."