The 7th edition of the Krakow Half Marathon took place on October 17th. The Krakow Municipality organized this event. Due to Covid restrictions, this year, organizers allowed a maximum of 5000 runners at the start. They did a great job. The highlights were: running on both sides of river Vistula, in Krakow city center, and impressive finishing on Tauron Arena, the biggest arena in Poland.
We were crossing the bridge over the Vistula.
The weather was cold that morning, around 10 Celsius, but great for running. It was the 7th year in a row when I ran a half marathon in October (starting from the MIB edition in 2015). For this race, my goal was to finish in under two hours. Since I was familiar with the half marathon distance, I started slowly. According to the statistics, after 10 km, more than 3000 runners were ahead of me. From 15th km, I increased the pace to faster than 5′ 30″ per km.
On the other side of the Vistula river
For the last 2 km, my speed was above 12km/h, which means running less than 5 minutes per kilometer. Indeed the finish on Tauron Arena was spectacular. There were lights and excellent visual effects in the vast hall. During the last 5 km, I went from place 3007 to 2478. The reason was not necessarily my increased speed. It was because many people ran too fast in the beginning and got tired. That happens every time. This race made no exception.
The official time was 1:56:53. This is 10 minutes below the personal best. However, this time is much better than the result at Bucharest Half Marathon. Given the current situation and my training, I am happy.
Only 2 km to the finish. All good!
One important aspect is that one week before the race, my coach, Stefan Oprina, suggested running 15 km in less than 1 hour and 25 minutes. I told him that I couldn’t do that as this year I am not in great shape. In 2021 I could run 15 km only in 1:27 or longer. Stefan said: “That is fine. Run whatever you can and let me know how it went”. That day I ran 15 km in 1:24. That made me believe that I could run this half marathon in less than two hours.
A gift from Stefan Oprina and the finisher medal from Krakow Half Marathon. The message is the motto of his running team: “Together, we are stronger!”
Stefan’s recommendation relied on the fact that I trained with him and the team for six weeks in Bucharest. During the first training, I was not able to run a kilometer in 5 minutes. Before leaving Bucharest, I managed to run 3 km in less than 5 minutes each.
I’ve learned one lesson from the Krakow Half Marathon experience. Often your brain sets the limits for you. In my case, it was 1:27 for 15km. Once you overpass that limit, you will feel free and boost your self-confidence. For example, last weekend, I ran 15 km in 1:21.
Being in Bucharest, with some administrative issues since August I had the chance to participate in Bucharest Half Marathon 2021 on September 5th. This was the tenth edition of this competition and my fourth participation.
Since it was an event during It was an event during the pandemic. The organizers required participants to be vaccinated or taking a Covid test that should have a negative result. I don’t know how many people were at the start. Only that about 1100 finished the 21.1 km race, including those participating in relays.
II was also registered at Poland Business Run. This was a virtual and remote team race of 4 km, taking place on the same day, September 5th. I do not have enough energy to run 4 km fast after a half marathon. The only option was to run both races at the same time. My choice was to run fast the first 4 km stop the watch and record the result. Then continue for the next 17 km to finish the half marathon. Obviously, I did not care about the finishing time of the half marathon.
At the start of the half marathon. I am at the bottom of the image with a blue cap
The weather was good for running at 8:30 AM when the race started. The organizers asked us to run with masks for the first 100m of the race. As you can see, many runners ignored that ask. I ran the first 4 km in 23 minutes. The time was not good. I made another try. I ran the next 4 km 40 seconds faster and used this time for the Poland Business Run race.
During the race, after 8 km
The picture above is taken at 8 km into the half marathon race. I had only one race to focus on at that time. The remaining 13 km of the half marathon. After 14 km I was tired, but that was not a surprise. The 8 km of faster speed at the beginning were taken their toll. I did not force myself at all. I was just having fun for the rest of the race.
At the finish line, in the center of the image
At 10 AM, it was already sunny and not that easy to run. I crossed the finish line after two hours and ten minutes. It was not a good time. Usually, I should finish in under two hours. But given the circumstances, I was happy with finishing both races. A fun fact is that at this competition, they had the heaviest medal I have ever seen. After running 21 km, they put the medal around my neck. My head went in front, carried by the heavy metal. The joke was that the medal was twice as heavy this time. Because last year there was no competition and they doubled the metal quantity this time.
After the race with some of my colleagues and our coach Stefan Oprina. In this picture, next to Stefan is Valeria Racila van Groningen, the organizer of this competition and of the most important running event in Romania (Bucharest International Marathon)
Despite the pandemic, the event was very well organized. Many thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to run again with such a great community. Everything was well prepared. There were hydration points, many bands singing on the way, and an army of volunteers checking that everything was ok.
During my stay in Bucharest, I trained with my colleagues at “Trupa Lui Fane”. It was great seeing them again after more than one year. I was happy that I could run with them. Many thanks to Stefan for giving me the chance to continue training with the rest of the team!
Another thing worth mentioning is that, among others, I am allergic to ragweed (in Romanian “ambrosia”). I did not know because the previous year, I was not in Bucharest during this time. Two years ago, it wasn’t that bad. It is estimated that around 10% of people in Romania are affected by this allergy. The recommendation is to stay at home during the morning when ragweed is more active. Not only that I did not stay at home that day. But I also ran for more than 2 hours. The result was that during that night, I could not breathe and therefore sleep. If people allergic to ragweed are taking Claritine, xyzal, or both, the symptoms will disappear.
If you are allergic to ragweed and plan to travel to Bucharest between mid-August and the end of September, please take care of this.
Ending on a positive note running a half marathon is always an experience to remember. As Emil Zatopek, the greatest runner once said:” If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life run a marathon”…or at least a half marathon, if I may add.
Last summer, I decided to resume my professional career in Krakow. Living alone in a city where I knew no one was not easy but not that hard as anticipated. The fact that the office is open, respecting anti-Covid norms, was very helpful. I could meet face to face many colleagues. The company assisted me with all the formalities needed to work from Poland.
My improvised office while working from home in Krakow
Running helped me a lot. I continued my training under indications from my coach, Stefan Oprina. In Krakow, I ran 540 km, three times per week, before I had to stop in December. The reason was that it was too cold outside. I had a sour throat after running while the outside temperature was under 0 Celsius. The gyms were closed due to Covid. My only option was to run at home with two dumbbells. I did that three times every week. I hope that I will be able to resume running outside starting from March. At the end of 2020, I still ran 1500 km in total.
Generally, I was running at a slower speed because the area for my training was where other people use to walk. In most cases, my runs were on the shores of Vistula. For example, in October, I ran a half marathon in two hours and thirteen minutes. Almost thirty minutes slower than the previous year. Still, running helps a lot both physical and mental health.
Last October. View from my window in Krakow center.
Krakow is the most popular tourist destination in Poland, with 14 million visitors in 2019. The city looks great, full of medieval buildings and the biggest old center in Europe. Most of the people speak English as they are used to interact with tourists. That is important for someone who doesn’t speak Polish. Coming here last July was a good thing. All the museums and restaurants were open. For example, visiting Shindler’s factory, I understood the plot from “Schindler’s List” movie. Laying on the hills the city has many spectacular landscapes. A must-see is the Wawel cathedral and castle, the residence of Polish kings before 1596. Then Warsaw became the capital of Poland.
View from Wieliczka Salt Mine
Close to the city, there are many other attractions, the Carpathian mountains with the famous resort Zakopane situated about 110 km to the south. There are hills, small towns, lakes, and nice sightseeings. Other cities in proximity are Katowice with wide-open spaces reminding of US cities, Częstochowa and Ostrava in Czechia.
View of Zakopane from surrounding mountains
Other positive things? The food tastes better and is cheaper than in Romania. Big malls and better roads.
What are the shortcomings? The winter is colder here than in Bucharest. Also, for me, the Polish language is hard to understand, but my colleagues are friendly.
Coming to Krakow was a great decision. A great life experience so far. Maybe I will post later some tourist experiences around Krakow.
For someone who doesn’t run at all, running 6000 km may seem a difficult task. On the other hand, we have the world’s best runner, Eliud Kipchoge, who runs around 10000 km every year. He is not alone, many of the world’s top long run athletes are running similar distances every year. It took me more than 5 years to run a total of 6000 km. Therefore at this moment, I am not a great runner but not a beginner anymore. Hopefully, before the end of 2022, I will reach the 10000 km milestone.
But, besides huge performance differences, Eliud Kipchoge and Zheng Churan have something in common. They both run for a cause. In the case of Kipchoge, he runs to prove that no human is limited. To demonstrate that, last year, in Vienna, he did finish the marathon distance in less than two hours for the first time in history, thus breaking a record that was considered impossible for humans.
In my opinion, running for a cause makes this activity less painful and gives you more motivation. Somebody may follow your example and the quality of their life will improve. Happy people will make a better world.
Since my previous blog post, and until mid-May, in Romania, like many other countries, we had a lockdown. The good part was that you were allowed to run around your home if you carried with you a declaration about where you live and where you run. This helped me keep running although there was no normal training.
I would like to share here two personal stories from the time of lockdown about health and running, maybe they will help others in the same situation.
I have an allergy for pollen for many years, each spring I start sneezing and I have difficulties in breathing. The treatment is to take for 10 nights XYZAL or Claritine and I feel very well. Unfortunately this year the treatment did not work although I tried both Claritine and XYZAL. I am not sure why yet, I have a few possible reasons to test next year. As a consequence mouth breathing was my only available option. Because of that, I was not able to sleep at all during the nights. However, I noticed that after a 10km or an hour of running I was breathing normally for two days. Then, I had to mouth breathe again. The change after every run was really impressive. It did happen all the times and it had the same effect. I’ve tried to find something similar over the internet. Similar problems or about running helping in case of allergies but I failed to find relevant information. I shared my experience with various runners but they did not hear about that either. Except for a friend who said that he experienced the same behavior in a similar situation. If someone knows about the problem I mentioned here or wants to find more information about this you can send me a message. After a few weeks, the problem totally disappeared. I took no other medicines than the ones mentioned above.
The second problem was that I got a painful callus on my left sole. I’ve never experienced that before. It seemed that I had a small grit in my flesh in that area. Every step I made hurt me. It was more painful when I walked barefoot at home than when I ran with shoes on. The running shoes were Adidas Energy Boost and were looking really well although I have used them for more than 600 km. It was hard to suspect that they caused the problem since I had no issues by using them for so long. It did not hurt me much when I ran with those shoes on.
I’ve tried changing the running shoes with a new pair of Energy Boost which I bought for some time because I was very happy running with the current ones. Nothing changed, the pain was there and kept staying with me. In the end, I chose to use two pairs of shoes: Adidas Adizero 3 for running less than 10km and Adidas Boston 7 for long runs. In time, the pain went away and I feel well now.
My advice for junior runners is to change the running shoes whenever they see a small problem with their feet that might be caused by the shoes. If you run more than 600 km with that pair of shoes consider replacing them even if they still look good.
I would like to end this post in a positive manner and mention that in June I ran 195 km which would translate to an average of 6.5 km/day or 4 miles per day during a month. This is my best distance in a month ever. I have no pictures for this article but I added pictures from my runs on Strava.
The best thing is that my health problems were left behind and I can continue all my activities.
Since we’re all staying at home and I achieved the title mentioned milestone by running while we were still allowed to run outdoor, I thought to share here about how running changed my life.
On May 17th, 2015, almost five years ago, I left home with the goal to run for as long as I could at a low pace. My weight was over 90 kilograms and there were almost 20 years since my last one-kilometer run. That day, I was able to run one mile at a 7:30 min/km pace before I lost my breath. The next days the muscular pain was hard, I could barely walk and I was able to run again only one week later for two kilometers.
In 2015 just before I started running
From that moment, for every run, my goal was to stop running only when something in my body couldn’t continue. I was either losing breath, or my feet couldn’t keep the pace, or my liver or other internal organ told me to stop. In two months I reached the 5-kilometer mark. One month later I could run 10 kilometers. And in September, four months since I began to run I was able to run 18 kilometers. Very happy with my achievements, I registered for a half marathon (21.1 km) race in October 2015.
I was reading about other people’s experiences running a half marathon, how difficult it was for them during the race and how well they felt after they finished it. For me, it was a great experience only the first five minutes after the start. Until then I was running alone for five months and suddenly around me, there were ten thousand other runners. Because I was very excited I began to run too fast for my abilities and soon the energy left me. That race was a very painful experience and I felt no satisfaction once I finished the race after two hours and fifteen minutes of run.
I’ve learned from that painful experience and kept training. Next year, in May 2016 I finished the half marathon in two hours and four minutes, a considerable improvement. I was finally happy after a race. In the same year, in October, I finished it in 1:54, reducing the time by another 10 minutes.
In 2017 at Bucharest Marathon
In 2018 I joined “Trupa lui Fane” and achieved my current personal best time in October same year 1:46:46 based on the guidance I got from Stefan Oprina, our coach.
In October 2018, I achieved my best result so far. The photo was taken when I just crossed the finish line.
Here are some of the things I’ve learned during these five years of running.
It’s better to run in a group than only by yourself. I’ve been running three years alone and two years in a group. While I was running alone, my posture was incorrect and it took my coach a lot of time trying to adjust my running posture, which is better now but far from perfect.
While running alone I did no warm-up and as a result, I had many injuries which kept me from running for long period of times, even for one or two months.
Let’s say you can buy a book and start reading about how to properly train, but the experience of a coach weights a lot. He can see what is not ok with your running and can make recommendations based on his experience.
Running in a team is a really fun experience. In a team, people will encourage you because they all know how hard it is to run a half marathon or longer distances. They will also congratulate you on achieving your results or on finishing your races.
Running improved my health very much. Before running, I used to get tired easily. I also got cold easily. Since I go to the dentist every year I noticed a big improvement in my teeth’ condition due to running.
When you are running long distances you learn not to give up. As a chess player before I started running once I lost a game I used to lose other games as well. I couldn’t focus well. Running taught me to keep fighting and after a lost game to be able to come back. I would say that running long distances is a boost for self-trust.
If you run for, let’s say, 20 kilometers in the morning, you will feel great for the rest of the day.
I did lose weight, about 20 kilograms, you can see it from the pictures above. The best part of it is that I could still eat anything I wanted without any diet.
I met many people and learned about interesting life experiences and this enriched my horizon.
If you are a middle age person with no experience in running and you want to run there are many books and posts on social media about how to create good behavior.
But, more important, you need motivation. In this aspect, the trigger is very important and it will differ from person to person. Some run for fun, this is the smallest percentage, but they do exist. Obviously not the case of someone who starts running in the 30s, 40s or even later. For others it’s the competition, they like to compete and to win. For some it’s because they want to stay healthy, many runners are in this category. There are people who run to brag about it: “I do run marathons”. For some, it’s about their dreams, for others their demons. Some run to deal with grief and some to avoid life. Some people run because they want to learn how to fly, others are put in motion by the last verse from “Divina Commedia”.
Running it’s a fight with yourself, it’s about how you can control your emotions and a way to know yourself better.
Dear reader, find your inner motivation and running will help you deal better with life. Running it’s not an easy journey but it’s a beautiful one and it worth trying it.
This was my story and it still continues. If everything goes well, I will reach the 10000 km run milestone in less than three years from now. Since this post was a personal story about running, I thought it’s appropriate to end it with the soundtrack of the movie “Running“.
The National Masters Athletics Championship Indoor took place on February 22nd and 23rd in Bucharest. The only difference compared to the senior championship is that in masters everyone is competing for their age category and there are winners for each age category. The limit age for masters is 35 years old and people are grouped together in a race depending on how old they are. The first age category is 35 to 39 years and then 40 to 44 and so on from every 5 years. This is the standard that applies worldwide.
The national championship has all the track and fields of indoor disciplines. The running distances are ranging from 60 meters to 3000m. Besides running, there are also competitions of high jump, long jump, triple jump, pole vault, etc.
Initially, I wanted to run in the 1500 meters in my age category and I registered for that. However, when I saw the starting list I realized that all the other 9 competitors were about to finish the race under 5 minutes while my personal best time stays at 6:00. In these circumstances, I thought a lot and decided to skip this race. It is not common for me to change my mind after announcing that I will participate so I was not happy with that. However, this race was with people from a different league.
On Saturday, I went to the “Ioan Soter” athletics hall only as a spectator to watch the masters races during that day.
I even recorded using my phone the race where I was supposed to run that day. The winner in the 40-45 age category was Marius Busca who won it with a time of 4:07 which was a new national record for the age category. The previous record was 4:17. One week later, I saw Marius Busca running in the 3000m seniors championship final where he was the only runner over 35 years. Yet he finished 5th in that race also beating the M40 masters national record for 3000m.
1500m M40 race at Romanian Master Championship
As you could see in the above race, all the runners finished under 5 minutes except for the last one who did it in 5:18 but nevertheless, he would still have finished with one lap ahead of me.
Since I am writing about 1500 meters races, that day there were other two national records beaten in the same race distance. Stefan Ciochina at M60 surpassed the previous record held by Ilie Cioca by almost 20 seconds and finished in 4:59, a great time. Yet, Cioca Ilie responded the same day by beating the M75 national record with a time of 6:05. This is the beauty of running in the masters series. Every five years you enter a new category and aim for your best performance according to your age.
On Sunday, the second day of the championship, there was amongst other races the 3000m run. This is the longest distance to run in indoor competition. In this competition, there were again two new national records. Stefan Chiochina has beaten the M60 record previously owned by Ilie Cioca by 40 seconds. And Cioca Ilie replied in the same race by beating the M75 national record. This sounds like “Groundhog Day”, right?
The most spectacular race of the day was the 800 meters run at M50 where our colleague Victor Bratu who owned the 1500m record in M50 tried to beat the national record for 800m too. But in that race, it was also Gheorghe Romascanu who owned the 800m record.
Better to see the race and convince yourself that it was a nice competition. Victor Bratu had the white shirt and Gheorghe Romascanu the orange one.
800m M50 race at Romanian Masters Championship
Victor Bratu won the race with a new national record of 2:16 for 800m!
I would like to congratulate all my colleagues from “Trupa lui Fane” who won the titles of National Champion for their age category: Bogdan Nitulescu M45 3000m, Laura Panaitescu F35 3000m and 1500m, Gloria Suciu F50 1500m, Cristina Ciobanu F55 1500m, 800m, 400m and, 200m, Victor Bratu M50 800m, Gil Popistasu M70 800m, Vali Puzderica M50 400m, Dan Constantin M45 60m, 200m and, 400m. Many thanks to our coach Stefan Oprina who helps us becoming better runners!Congratulations also to all the athletes who participated in this event!
This was a nice championship and I am looking forward to my next race, this month on March 22nd at Baneasa Forest Run where I will run 11km.
The explanation is simple, nobody else competed in my age category at the Municipal Championship.
Happy after my first official race indoor.
There are tens of thousands of runners in Bucharest and the running community is growing fast in the city. Most of the people are running because it improves health and they are not interested in competitions. Besides, people are running long distances, longer than 3km and only outdoor.
To participate in an official competition, as the Municipal Championship, you have to be registered in a running club and to pay a small registration fee, around 10 USD.
This was my first indoor competition. The course has only 180m length and for a 1500 meters race, you have to run 8 laps and another 60 meters.
On Saturday, January 11th, we gathered at the start and once we heard the pistol shot we start running. I knew I was a slow pacer and my target was to finish the race under 6:20. For this reason, I did not start fast. During the race, I had a very strange sensation, similar to the one when I was a child in a merry-go-round. I was seeing the same faces every 45 seconds as this was the time it took me to run each lap.
With our coach Stefan Oprina who won three gold medals at the Municipal Championship
The surprise came when the arbiters asked all the participants to run a lap more than it should have been for 1500 meters. Probably they made a mistake in counting the number laps needed for this race. It was very strange as all of us knew that we shouldn’t have to run that last lap, yet we did it. Of course, everyone contested the result and it proved that we were right and the arbiters adjusted the results. My official time was 6:03 although I am sure I did not run faster than 6:15. As a bonus, since I was the only runner in my age category I got the “gold” medal.
The next day, on Sunday, I ran the 800 m race, which was only four laps long. This race was without special events and I finished it in 3:07, not a great performance. However, I got the “silver” medal because there was only one runner who was faster than me in my age category.
Although not planned, my teammates asked me to join them in a relay race, 4×2 laps. This was a really hard race for me as I am not prepared for running short distances at high speed. The experience was interesting but I am not sure I want to repeat it soon. Our team got the “silver” medal for the relay participation.
With some happy colleagues and our coach
All my colleagues who participated in the races got “gold” or “silver” medals in their age category group. Our coach, Stefan Oprina, won his three races where he participated. Many thanks to Stefan for helping us become better runners!
One could say my first competition indoor was a success. Or, as a friend told me recently, the key to success is the lack of competition.
It was the first time I won my age category in an official competition.
“Ioan Soter” running hall. The only place in Bucharest for indoor running
We train twice a week in this running hall during winter and it is always very crowded. In my opinion, there should be more than one running hall in such a big city like Bucharest. Ideally, a running hall should have a 400 meters lap and not 180. This way more people would be able to train in winter when it’s hard to run outdoor.
December 1st is Romanian National Day and a running competition is organized each year in Bucharest to celebrate this occasion. Last year on December 1st it was snowing and the temperature was -10 Celsius. I went to see people running that day and I thought I’ll never run outside at that temperature. This year the weather was much better, a +4 Celsius and I decided to run a half marathon.
This year’s edition of December 1st Marathon celebrated the memory of Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He was the first ruler of Romania from 1859 to 1866. He was born exactly 200 years ago and became ruler of Romania 160 years ago. Another coincidence, the competition happened in the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” park in Bucharest.
The competition medal was engraved to honor Alexandru Ioan Cuza
As a side note, this April, I was visiting Heidelberg, the city where Alexandru Ioan Cuza died while in exile in 1873.
As for the race, the course map was a 4.2 km circle in the park which we ran five times by the half marathon runners and ten times by those running a marathon. It was not the ideal circuit, it had ups and downs, climbing and descending on stairs. With this in mind, I thought it was not a race for achieving a personal best time. Therefore having fun was more important on this special occasion.
At the start, there were 1200 people prepared for a run on a special day
During the race, I had a constant pace, except for the first km when it was very crowded with all the participants it was slower. I completed the half marathon in 1:53:38 and placed 147 from the 375 runners who finished the race. It was not my best time this season but not the worst either.
A runner in a park by the lakeLooking relaxed on the runHappy after a good race on December 1st
Many thanks to Radu Neagu who took the pictures above and sent me quickly as always! He did run an 11 km race which started after we finished the half marathon and had time to take us pictures before his run.
The MC for this event was Bogdan Nitulescu, my colleague from “Trupa lui Fane”. Bogdan does this job every year for this competition. Last year he stayed for more than 7 hours outside at -10 Celsius. This year the weather was much better. Many thanks, Bogdan, for encouraging us through the race in a cold December morning!
Bogdan looking happier this year. Thanks for your support!
This race was the first half marathon for my friend and colleague Bobo. It was a great result for him finishing in 1:56 such a race as the course was difficult and it was cold outside.
With Bobo at the end of his first half-marathon. Congratulations on your first half marathon!
The December 1st half marathon was a nice way to end the competitional season outdoor by running on a special occasion.
This year, I ended my outdoor running season at Urban Athletics in Bucharest. It was the second edition of this event. They had three races, 800m, 3km and one mile (1609m). I went for the 3km distance, which is still a short distance for me but it was the best option available. Those were the official races but it was also a family-run.
The event was very well organized and more important it was a lot of fun to be there. They provided water and sweets for the runners as well as diplomas and medals for all the finishers. Kiseleff Boulevard was a good choice for a fast run.
It was a misty day last Sunday when we took the start at 9 am for the 3km race. There were not many runners and this also helped us obtain a good result. The temperature was about 10 Celsius which was also ideal for cooling during the run.
The 3km race started in a misty morning
I have no experience with the 3km distance and carried out by the wave of runners I began running with a pace that I could not sustain for the whole race. When I looked at my watch the pace was 3:40/km, which was obviously too fast for me. I ran the first kilometer in 4:04 and then the last two kilometers in 4:24. I was not able to keep the same speed for the whole distance. But I am happy that I was able to run at a decent speed for the rest of the race.
As it can be seen here, I was obviously suffering for the last kilometer of the race. Yet I am happy I could finish with a good result.
My finish time was 12:53 placing me at 60 position in a list of 136 runners. It was, of course, a personal best for this distance and I am really happy about that.
After the race, I was looking more like a protestant in front of the Government building than happy about my performance. Bobo also ran a 3km race and obtained a personal best time. He looked happy with his result.
Once the races finished we waited for the prize-giving ceremony to congratulate the winners. A funny moment was when Radu Neagu took us a picture, a very young competitor showed up in front of us.
With colleagues and our coach Stefan Oprina who won his age category in the one-mile race. In front of Stefan is a young athlete, looking forward to future races. The future is his.Many thanks to Radu Neagu for the pictures he sent me! Here you can see him running a one-mile race at Urban Athletics
Since it’s already November we’ll start training indoor until March. Maybe I will compete in some indoor activities during this time.
My conclusion is that I liked very much the Urban Athletics competition because it was very well organized and good for speed running on short distances. I recommend the next edition of this race for all interested in running either short or long distances.
This year’s edition of the Bucharest International Marathon happened on a beautiful and sunny day in October. This was my fifth participation at MIB. Like every year I ran a half marathon.
MIB is the most important running event in Romania by the number of participants. What makes special this event is that you meet many friends, colleagues and people you would not see in a while.
With my former colleagues before the start of the half marathon. They just finished the 10 km race and got their medals. Behind us is the Palace of the Parliament, the biggest building in Europe.
For this race, I aimed to finish it in 1 hour and 45 minutes. In order to achieve this,I planned to follow the 1:45 pacers. One advantage of this plan is that you don’t have to look at your watch and calculate how fast you should go during the race. You just follow the pacers and if you are up to that task you’ll finish in 1:45.
Everything went according to the plan until at km 17, when I was not able to continue keeping up with the pacers. For the first 17km, my pace was at about 5 min per km then I dropped at 5:15 and finally for the last two kilometers at 5:35. Eventually, I finished in 1:47:32 which is not a bad time, after all, it is my second best time. This result placed me in the first 20% of the 2166 people who finished the half marathon.
Full energy at the start of the 12th edition of Bucharest International Marathon. Near me, you can see a 1:50 pacer helping those who wanted to finish the half marathon in one hour and fifty minutes.After 4km into the race. Far behind us, you can see the Palace of the Parliament. I am the one with the blue cap.
Once the half marathon was finished we waited to greet our colleagues, from the group “Trupa lui Fane”, who were running the marathon race. On that heat, at above 25 degrees Celsius, it was very hard to run for many hours. Especially for those who finished in 4 or 5 hours, the race was really difficult. Because of that many people abandoned during the marathon. A suggestion for the organizers for the next editions would be to start the marathon earlier.
A small group from “Trupa lui Fane” after the half marathon race.
My thanks and gratitude to my coach Stefan Oprina for the training and the constant encouragement he gave me in many situations. One example, before joining his team I often had injuries because I did no warm up before the training sessions.
Also, warm thanks to Radu Neagu, who after running a half marathon took us pictures, including the photo above.
This was my tenth official half marathon. In 2015 I finished it in 2:15 and now I can run the same distance almost 30 minutes shorter, which is quite ok in my opinion.
Leaving aside these technical details, more important is that running changed my life. I would like to end this story with a quote that has been on my mind since I start running four years ago:
“An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.” – Emil Zatopek
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