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42 kilometers, an impressive distance considering most people use their car to drive to the corner store. Often promoted as “flat and fast“, city marathons attract thousands, sometime tens of thousands of participants. Then there’s the cross country marathon, again 42 kilometers but the terrain varies greatly. With the addition of water crossings, forest trails, rocky paths and of course the beloved hills, it’s difficult to compare. They’re still called “marathons” due to the distance but the effort necessary is in a whole difference league. The city marathons look like a trip to the corner store after running a cross country event.

The Silva Nortica Marathon was my third marathon and my first cross country race. I recently completed my second marathon at the Prague International Marathon. Read my entry on the Prague event to get an understanding of where I’m at in my running career. In summary, I’m still very new to the process, not an absolute “newbee” but still a lot to learn.

The Silva Nortica Marathon is actually the “little” run of the event. At the same time, a 85 kilometer ultra marathon event does a loop covering both sides of the Czech and Austrian border. I spent all of my time in Austria with the end of the race at the border crossing into the Czech Republic.

I knew I wasn’t running in the typical city marathon when I showed up for the bus in Nove Hrady to take the runners to the start of the race. Rather than tens of thousands crammed into starting corrals, there were less than a 30 participants on the bus. Every one of the runners looked like a seasoned veteran, the average age around 45. There was a certain glow to each of them, a warm smile that originates deep inside. They were there for a challenge, to see what their limits are. Little glory, no money to win, not even a cool shirt to take home.

A long bus ride, not surprisingly roughly 42 kilometers, took us to the start. The drive provided a reverse summary of what was to be run, leaving us rather symbolically at the foot of a small ski hill I think was called “Baronuv Most”. A group of approximately 60 runners gathered, all speaking Czech. Even the introduction speech by the organizers appeared to be in Czech or perhaps it was German, I wasn’t sure. Looking for clues on the runner’s faces, everyone seemed OK with what was said so I simply went with the crowd. A small starting gun was pointed to the sky and “bang“, we were off. A crowd of five kids in sparkly outfits cheered us on, this was the extent of the spectators.

Soon we were running down a forest road. The group quickly spreading out, everyone appeared to be on their own personal run rather than in a race. The course took us on a long loop around the base of the ski hill returning us to the start after 10km. Feeling great, maybe even on top of the world, I did my best to keep my pace in check. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as I did in Prague. Of course, I was only half successful. Conservative by city marathon standards, I was still going too fast. I knew there were some hills and off road trails ahead but I really had no sense of what was to come.

At 8km, still on the ski hill loop, I encountered my first serious hill of a 6% grade. My training in Brno paid off, the hill was no problem. I passed a few runners that were walking the hill, such softies! One of the fellows ahead of me actually cheered and raised his fists to the air in celebration when he reached the summit. What’s the big deal, he ran a hill, crazy Czech runners I guess?!?

The start of the race turned into a refreshment station at the end of the loop. I was in a pack of strong runners moving at what I thought was a reasonable pace. A big gulp of water refused to go down, perhaps it was a bad omen? I left the station coughing and spitting water on the side of the road. I wanted to stay with the pack, no time for silly refueling needs. Off we went. One of the few women in the race ran ahead of me. Covered in spandex, blonde and in fantastic shape, the boy in me seemed inspired. This didn’t last.

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Tags: Cross Country, Pain, Running Goals, Silva Nortica, The Czech Republic, Tourist

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Czech Republic, Injuries, Races, Running Locations, Silva Nortica, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.