Saturday
7.30 a.m. I had found a person going to the Dębno marathon and willing to take passengers. There were eight of us and turned out to be a varied company: Tadeusz, the driver, and his wife, both members of runner's clubs (plus his father as a backup driver); their friend, Monika, participant of half-marathons and marathons all over the world; Andrzej, one the fathers of the Cracovia Marathon (!); his friend, Stanisław, who used to work at Wisła with women's volleyball team; and a nice, quiet guy, whose name I never got...
So the journey was full of tales of marathons and sport events.
Slept at the gymnasium, where I shared the floor with a hundred other runners. And a few of my travel companions - despite them being real, well-known sport VIPs (constantly some officials kept recognising them and starting a discussion), they did not bother to get a hotel room or something like that, but instead they just shared our common area.
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Sunday
Trying to relax before start, I read some running related quotes displayed on a board at the marathon headquarters. Two favourites of mine being:
At the finish line of a marathon you can feel that you are worth the air you breathe.
And if you aren't bone-tired and don't feel like vomiting, then it means you could have run faster...
And to top it all:
Quotations are prosthesis for mind.
Start
Surprised greatly - nobody ran for their lives, nobody tried to get ahead of everyone else and trample me in the process. Amazing.
In company of two of my travel-mates.
5km
Lost my travel-mates. Found my own pacemakers - two guys running at ~6min./1km.
13km
Lost two minutes trying to resolve problems with my mp3player - turned out it was set to repeat one folder and I did not want to listen to the
Twilight soundtrack over and over again - I wanted to listen to
New Moon (Twilight Pt. 2) and
Eclipse (Twilight Pt. 3) as well ;D
17km
The leader overtook us. For him it was 34km - so he was
literally two times faster.
25km
Lost my pacemakers when they met some friends who delayed them.
36km
Made it by myself, keeping nice and steady pace. Until my stomach almost betrayed me and I had to slow down.
40km
Saw Tadeusz and Agnieszka heading for the finish line. For me it was still one more turn.
Finish
4:28:20 - my personal best.
And I had seriously feared that I would not finish within the time limit.
After quick shower (no queue - one ladies room seemed to be enough to handle all the female participants), I went to get my recovery meal. A girl - a teenager, one of the many volunteers - immediately came to me and asked if she could get the meal for me, told me to sit down and wait as she would bring me everything. That was
so sweet I almost cried. Really, the people were wonderful.
All my travel-mates made it. We got back to Kraków at 3 a.m.
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What you can say about the Dębno marathon:
- At world`s end.
- The oldest marathon in Poland (how come?!)
- Expensive - the registration fee is extremely high in comparison.
- They provide no sport t-shirts (despite the extremely high entry fee).
- There are no pacemakers ("they could not afford it" - despite the extremely high entry fee).
- Small time limit - 5 hours, whereas it is usually 6 or 6,5.
- Route made of four overlapping circles, very confusing, especially at the beginning.
- Hot spot connection at the headquarters kept freezing.
However!
They also have the nicest, the kindest, the keenest, the most helpful, the most dedicated volunteers! I mean it. Had it not been for the crew, I would probably not count it as a memorable event. They made all the difference. They were everywhere they were needed, they knew everything they should, they helped you before you even had thought of asking. And they smiled sincerely.
Plus all the supporters on the way - also very involved, despite their small number (small town, small villages), very engaged.
So the people made up for everything else.
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And why all that? The plan is to finally get the Crown of the Polish Marathons and so the Dębno Marathon is the first step (of five).
Stay tuned.
