From the Tatras to the Danube river

Unexpectedly 2 days before the start I was invited to Run for Fun running team to take part in relay run. The Tatra Mountains and running – how could I say no laugh

The relay run From The Tatras to The Danube starts in ski resort Jasna in the Tatras and ends in Bratislava. The whole route is 345 km. There are 4 categories:

All – 9 to 12 runners

Women – 9-12 female teams

Mix – 9-12 runners, at least half of which are women

Ultra – 6 person teams

This year 200 teams in all categories took part. Every runner covers one of the designated 36 parts of the route (Ultra category is an exception where it is allowed to run 2 consecutive tracks at a time) followed by the next team member at a set order. With 12-men team it means around three 10 kilometer sections. At first there are a few hundred meters of altitude gain and loss and gradually as the route gets further away from the mountains it gets flatter.

On Friday afternoon August 18th we left Bratislava to the starting point in the Tatras where we collected starting packages. To avoid congestion during the event runners start at a 10 minute intervals from 8 AM to 3 PM. We were supposed to begin at 11:50 which allowed us to get a good night’s sleep and some even went for a morning warm-up run. I was assigned number 8 and was supposed to run section 8,20,32. We split into two smaller teams travelling in two minivans.

We cheered on our first team member and went on our way to the start of section 7 where our half would take over. My 8th section despite being 9,5 km was a bit demanding due to +430m / -500m altitude difference. Steep, forested hill forced me to march a bit which I tried to make up for on the downhill.

As the night moved in so did the thunderstorm, torrential rain and injury of one of our runners. I love long distances and readily volunteered for some extra kilometers. My section number 20 counted 11,8 km + 170m / – 150m mostly along dirt roads. The extra one soon after was 9,2 km along flat,asphalt road at night in a rainstorm. Surprisingly it was my fastest section.

My last part number 32, already during Sunday late morning, was 7,2 km along a stony road between fields. In this open ground there was a headwind slowing me down as well as fatigue creeping in from the sleepless night and previous three fast sections.  

Overall our team took 14th place among all 200 contestants with 27:07:58 losing 03:58:15 to the winner. Among 156 teams in our category we placed 9th.

Thank you everyone for support, encouragement, trust and great active weekend.

        

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