Włóczykij Trip Extreme 2018

Włóczykij is somehow special to us. I (Ania) have been wanting to do it for ages but always something came across my plans. Radek did it already twice (2016 and 2017) and this year it was high time for me to have a go too. I have to say, the fate didn’t spare me as the conditions this year were… fierce.

This is our group on the starting point. I don’t know if you can tell that from this photo but I was already freezing at that moment and the worse was yet to come. The week before the event was the coldest week in the year, the temperatures  going as low as -20 dg. C at night. Do I need to say that Włóczykij takes place at night? 🙂 Anyway, the day of the event was slightly better and only because of that I decided to go. The temperature at night was -13 dg. C. I’m a chilly person, I’m always cold so you can imagine what such temperatures mean to me. Of course, I layered myself that day. But somehow, I put all layers and was already cold on the start. That didn’t give good predictions for the night.

My photo collection from the event is very scarce. I was literally freezing. Our snot would freeze, our sweat would freeze, our water would freeze. Booze didn’t freeze fortunately 🙂 It’s an orienteering trip so the idea is to find the hidden points. We found them all 🙂 50 km (for us it was 54 because we didn’t optimize the route at times) of a walk. We started in a group but somewhere near the end Radek and I parted and continued in a faster pace. I had remorse because of that, I was feeling like we should stick in the group but I was trembling all the time, I was feeling a physical pain from the cold and needed to find a way to elevate my body temperature. And so we detached from our friends and moved on in a very very fast march. It helped.
I was pretty surprised because to be honest, physically the whole trip was not that exhausting to me. But the cold was unbearable and I felt it long after the finish. But I’m sure I’ll repeat this the next year. I suppose the odds of having the same weather the next year are low. Let’s hope 🙂

That’s us on the finish! Our official result was:
Place: 50/144
Time: 11h 09 min

Włóczykij Trip Extreme 2017

My second attempt in Włóczykij Trip Extreme (have a look HERE if you don’t remember my first one) took place this year. It’s a 50k orienteering march (or run) conducted at night close to Szczecin.
During this attempt we had lovely spring weather and were full of optimism. We walked through Puszcza Bukowa, a beautiful forest full of hills. With height difference between hills and valleys up to 80m we did a bit of hiking but we also were able to see beautiful views, at least till sunset.

After 12 hours of walk we gathered all requested points and reached the finish line. This year result was better then previous and gave us spot in the first half of the ranking. We’ll see the next year 🙂

Włóczykij Extreme Trip

For the last few years we’ve been wanting to join our friends in Włóczykij Extreme Trip – a night orienteering run for 50 km that takes place between February and March. Unfortunately for the last 3 years we were far away from Gryfino where this event is placed. But the waiting is over (at least for Radek, because I couldn’t join this year either) and Radek had a chance to test his stamina and orienteering skills against this epic track.

The run starts at 17:00 and Radek went on track with a group of  friends. For the next 12 hours they walked almost 60 km on hills and in the river valley around Gryfino. It got dark quickly (so not to much photos) but with help of other competitors they were able to find all(!) check points and when the sun rose they reached the finish line within the given time.

This was the first time when our friends managed this race so well and Radek was really happy to be part of it. And you can imagine me being sooo proud of my husband! I followed his route on Endomendo. It’s such a pity I couldn’t join 🙁 They scored above average and finished the race on 133 out of 286 places.

Msc Nr PK czas łączny p.karne z czasu start meta czas trasy czas stopu stop wejście stop wyjście punkty
133 163 Małecki Michał 170 12:29 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:39 16-03-05 23:29 16-03-06 0:08 170
185 Orecki Radosław 170 12:29 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:39 16-03-05 23:29 16-03-06 0:08 170
211 Porzych Zbigniew 170 12:29 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:39 16-03-05 23:29 16-03-06 0:08 170
263 Staszewski Tomasz 170 12:29 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:39 16-03-05 23:29 16-03-06 0:08 170
137 40 Daniłowicz Dorota 170 12:30 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:38 16-03-05 23:31 16-03-06 0:09 170
292 Tomaszewski Mariusz 170 12:30 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:18 13:08 0:38 16-03-05 23:31 16-03-06 0:09 170
171 Mielnicki Tomasz 170 12:30 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:40 13:30 1:00 16-03-05 22:36 16-03-06 0:15 170
179 Niczyj Patryk 170 12:30 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:40 13:30 1:00 16-03-05 22:36 16-03-06 0:15 170
245 Sobczyk Edward 170 12:30 0 16-03-05 17:10 16-03-06 6:40 13:30 1:00 16-03-05 22:36 16-03-06 0:15 170

And here’s what Radek has to say:
„To summarize the last few hours and kilometers was just pure agony but after one day I rested and now I’m looking forward to thenext year.”

And in the end some video from event:

Orienteering event in Puszcza Bukowa

My desire to be in the bosom of nature didn’t stop with us coming back to Poland. Sure, this has been a hectic time for us with the move and me starting working full-time, but these are the days like this one that keep me going. Our friends Magda and Michał are frequent contestants of orienteering events and I always wanted to join them on a trail. So yet another „to-do” thing to be crossed out 🙂 Theoretically it was only a 10 km route, however you needed to double it to get to the starting point and came back to the car. So all in all we closed this soggy but rain-free day with ~22 km.

 

The start was at the Lion’s Mouth fire place in Bukowa Forest. I really intend to get to know this forest better. It’s close to us, vast and beautiful. And the names of the places are so funny. I have to say, the organizers did a great job. There was a fire place, maps, 10 orienteering points to be found and lovely prizes for everybody who attended. I was very excited to be taking part in this event.

 

Group photo credit: Arek Arecki

The route was very pleasant and the points were really easy to find. We struggled only once (which actually cost us the place on the podium but I’ll come to this later). I had so much fun on the trail, it was pure pleasure to me. Have a look at the photos from the contest.

Radek and I finished fourth. The first two places were taken by runners and we lost by seconds with a third couple. Radek was pouting a bit because we decided to run the very last part and I slowed him down with my turtle pace. And I didn’t let him leave me 🙂 Well, you decided what’s better – winning a podium place or being a decent husband 🙂

We will sure be back the next year!