Tag: Szczecin

I wrote about this race last year so I’m not going to say much. Just a promise that I will start the next year too. And Wojtek made his appearance in running too!

Do you know that we’re celebrating 10th wedding anniversary this July? Let the celebrations begin. Although it’s only February, we’re feeling like this is a special year for us. We typically don’t celebrate the Valentine’s Day but we found this race to be just perfect to spend some time together. The idea is that it’s a couple race and the couple is tighed together with a string and the string cannot be torn during the race. It’s only 5 km, so nothing too long. And lots of people put on costumes. We did too 🙂

Photo Credit: Dulny Photo and Borek

The K2 race is a mountain race in Szczecin. Sounds strange? Well, let me explain. It takes place on the hills of Bukowa forest. The finish line is on the top of Gubałówka hill which is also our „ski resort” (see more here). The funny thing about this race is that you need to beat the hill twice, as the starting point is down the hill, and the finish line is on the hill. The name of the race derives from a fact that the distance is ~8611m (like K2 mountain) and that it’s a hill race. Lots of fun. And seriously, I have no idea how it is possible that I’m smiling on those final metres. The uphill is devastating!

Photo credit: Dulny Photo and Radek

I will have a lot to write about this race, so ready for a story?
Although we are preparing for our fist marathon, I have to admit, I was a bit neglectful of my training. I haven’t been feeling well lately and I sometimes skip my trainings. I had even considered dropping out of marathon at some point. Anyway… Since my running performance is rather bad, I decided I would take this halfmarathon calmly. I was aiming for 2h 15 min, so more like a long run training instead of a tempo training. But I changed my mind one week before the start. I’ll keep this to myself where I found motivation – or ask me some day face to face 🙂 But the motivation was big enough for me to try to go under 2h in this marathon – this was the goal I set for myself.

What adds flavour to this story is a fact that a day earlier Radek had ordered a pizza and I was unable to refrain myself (who wouldn’t?) 🙂 It ended badly for me, I got stomach upset and it began even before the starting line. Another setback… Like 20m after the start my headphones died and I was left without any music. I’m the kind of a runner who can’t imagine running without music but I had no choice. So… weak from food poisoning, with no beat in my head that would speed up my pace, I endevoured to beat my life record in half marathon. Radek had not believed I would make it and to be honest, neither had I. But I tried anyway.

The two photos above are from the finish line. Radek made it in 1:48:08 and I… wait for it… 1:58:17. I honestly don’t know how it is possible. The very race was not an ordeal for me surprisingly. Problems began after the finish line but that’s another story. We were both super proud from these results (although it’s not Radek’s personal best). And I guess, running is 50% muscles and 50% head.