Silva Nortica - Run this way!
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.
Silva Nortica Marathon Map with a marker to Krumlov, the city Jani introduced me to as the short residence of the great painter Egon Schiele in 1911.
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.
