David Lladó completed the Spartathlon, a 246-kilometer ultramaratón recreating the historic run of the messenger Pheidippides in ancient Greece, and later discovered in adulthood that he is autistic. Lladó details his experiences in his book Kilómetros infinitos, published by Editorial Contra in 2026, examining the intersection of late-diagnosed neurodivergence and endurance sports.
The Childhood Signs and the Spartathlon
Lladó recalls having a poor memory—often finishing a television series only to forget having seen it a year later—yet retaining a vivid image from childhood. While other children played marbles at school, he spent his time running endlessly in circles around the school playground. Looking back, he describes that repetitive running as entirely natural for him, though it went unexplained at the time.
That early impulse toward distance eventually manifested in ultrarunning. The Spartathlon requires runners to cover 246 kilometers from Athens to Sparta, a grueling effort taking close to 36 hours. Lladó spent five years fixated on the event before finally completing it, attributing his success to an intense, prolonged focus rather than brief concentration.
Struggles in Academia and the Quest for Answers
In his book, Lladó discusses repeating the sixth grade of EGB and failing to finish BUP. He questioned his intelligence throughout his youth, wondering if he lacked the capacity for formal study. Seeking answers, he enrolled in a Physics degree at age 25 to test his intellectual capabilities and explore why things happened.
However, he found that physics eventually shifted from addressing fundamental “whys” to practical “hows.” When a professor told him that questioning the existence of gravity belonged to philosophy rather than physics, Lladó transitioned to Mathematics to work with abstract scientific rigor. He left the program without graduating when his first daughter was born. Two decades later, that same daughter has begun studying the identical degree.
Challenging Stereotypes and Finding Relief in a Diagnosis
Lladó rejects the trope of the misunderstood autistic genius, noting that while he fits that archetype to a degree, many autistic individuals do not. He has worked as an informatics teacher, a cultural manager for 13 years at a Barcelona civic center, and, for the past three years, as a technical manager for a third-sector innovation project in Catalonia. He notes that he never understood the canned laughter surrounding Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, viewing the character’s behavior as standard.
Receiving an autism diagnosis in adulthood reframed his perspective. He notes that autism is a different way of processing information rather than an illness, but because society is built for neurotypical processing, neurodivergent individuals frequently experience friction. Before his diagnosis, he often felt broken or at fault for his differing interests and communication styles. Learning he was autistic brought the realization that the difficulty was not his fault, a sentiment he notes is common among late-diagnosed adults.
Monotropism and Current Projects
Lladó highlights “monotropism”—the capacity to focus attention intensely on a single subject for years rather than minutes—as a driving force behind his athletic achievements. He also describes running as a relief from social misinterpretations, allowing him to discard social masks and feel free.
Though no longer drawn to competitive races with bib numbers, Lladó is undertaking a new, highly focused challenge: walking every single street of Barcelona’s roughly 1,400-kilometer street grid from scratch. Having already completed a quarter of the route, he views the endeavor as a profound exercise in searching for personal identity.
Worth a look
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