Baba Kamzik 2018 – blood, sweat and … heat
This April I took part in Baba-Kamzik (53 km, 1700 m elevation gain) ultra marathon in The Little Carpathians near Bratislava. I knew the route from last year. However this time I was not preparing too much for this event and considering it more as an endurance training for the upcoming mountain expeditions. I took no break from my weekly weight and cardio training to rest before the ultra.
Like on CSOB Marathon I was joined by Tomasz and Gosia, however only Gosia was running as Tomasz was recovering after 100 km ultra the week before. This year it was a sunny day, but unexpectedly hot with summer temperatures of close to 30 C.
Straight from the start I could feel my pace being sluggish and my legs heavy, perhaps running 25 km the day before was not the greatest idea
I reached first checkpoint 11 km after 01:05:06. After a short break and a snack I felt a lot better and sped up. As I was climbing the hills so did the temperature and my energy dropped again. Next point in Pezinska Baba on 26th km was done in 02:40:01.
It was going fairly well until at around 38th km a disaster struck – I slipped on mud near one of the streams and fell on the stony path heavily scraping my knees and elbow.
I reached the Biely Kriz station on 41st km in 04:37:20 where I had my injury treated and continued the run at a slower pace with longer parts of just walking towards the end.
Overall I finished 99th out of 188 people who finished in 05:59:46. It was a worse result compared to last year but still ok for me. Once again big thanks to Gosia and Tomek for help and support.




