Posts Tagged ‘The Czech Republic’

Half Baked Running Events

Friday, August 20th, 2010
Olomouc Half-Marathon, Jana and Darren

Olomouc Half-Marathon, Jana and Darren

Recently I ran in the Olomouc Half-Marathon in the Czech Republic with the wonderful Jana (see the cute blonde on the left). It was her first “half” so I made a training event out of it. I’m going to make a point of running more events with friends of various running levels, it reminds me to have fun. We still make reference to the dreaded “BFA” that passed us at the end of the race.

In running an event for “fun” I can look at Olomouc objectively and see that no matter how well panned events are there’s always the potential for a “gong show” ending. Imagine training for months, perhaps even years. All of your effort is focused on a single event, it’s your life. Many, many people and factors are involved including the all mighty dollar. The big day arrives, an hour of running later, it’s all over. Crossing the finish line with a fantastic sense of accomplishment, it appears you’ve won the race. For Stephen Kibet and Stephen Tum, both of Kenya, heartache followed shortly after as they were disqualified. They had followed a media truck off of the course in the middle of the race resulting in a disqualification. If ever there was a time to hate the media this is it.

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Posted in Calgary, Canadian Derby Edmonton Marathon, Edmonton, Loop the Lake, Running Locations | No Comments »

Surviving the Silva Nortica Marathon

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Silva Nortica sign

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 Krumlov Marker

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.

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Posted in Czech Republic, Injuries, Races, Running Locations, Silva Nortica, Training | 2 Comments »

Hills to Run

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

I love running hills. There just happens to be a few races that have hills. Just about every cross country race has hills and the ultra-marathons (anything over 42km) seems to have them by default. If you happen to have masochistic tendencies it helps as well.

Silva Nortica marathon 2010 start

Silva Nortica marathon 2010 start. I'm the one in yellow with the blue cap.

Perspective seems like a good thing to mention in this discussion. When I say “hills”, perhaps some think of little ups and downs on the road. I mean elevation changes in general. Elevation changes over the course of a race, typically measured in hundreds of metres, sometimes thousands. It’s rare that a city marathon has even the slightest elevation change with event sales pitches talking of “flat and fast”. There are a few hilly road marathons that I have on my wish list but in general it’s all about going as fast as possible. Hills don’t lend well to a fast race.

I recently ran my first cross country marathon, the Silva Nortica. My finish time was 5:02 which put me very close to the back of the pack of 20 contestants. Something to note about cross country and ultra races in general, they’re small. There’s often not a lot of fane fare to the events and not many contestants.  Five hours is not impressive in the city marathon realm where they’re typically tens of thousands of runners, actually it’s not impressive in cross country either but still a milestone for me. In my limited experience, I would call Silva Nortica the hardest and the most proud of a race I’ve run to date.

42 kilometers across the Czech and Austrian country side in the Silva race made my last marathon, the Prague International Marathon seem easy. The distance was the same but the effort necessary wasn’t even close. I’ll provide details on my Silva Nortica run in a later post, for now I’ll describe it simply as “kick ass” in more ways than my bum is willing to mention at this time.

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Posted in Czech Republic, Hills, Prague International Marathon, Races, Running Locations, Silva Nortica | 1 Comment »

Prague International Marathon 2010

Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Prague International Marathon, 2010

Prague International Marathon, 2010 - Looking a little worst for wear, knee bleeding but still going strong.

I’ve been slow posting my experience of running the Prague International Marathon. I do have a few excuses but in general it’s more the result of just wanting to write about new stuff, thoughts and where my mind currently is wandering in the running realm. Perhaps the most justifiable excuse, the race took place only a week after arriving in the Czech Republic from Taiwan. The jet lag was killing me combined with a general lack of sleep. For future reference, I hope to give myself at least a few weeks in an event location before my race. The results and general “happiness level” are certainly reflected in the results after an adjustment of sleep and finding a new rhythm.

Prague was my second running of a full marathon. Truth be told, my it was my first real running of the event. Last year, at my first, the Toronto Water Front Marathon, I took Carla’s advice and ran specific distances with walking breaks – two kilometers with 30 second walks. It was wise advice as I was uncertain about how to run 42km. My experience and training to date were at most in the 30km range, I was unclear about my pacing and the proverbial “wall” that many talk of.

On the ?? Bridge, close to our hotel and on the way to the start of the Prague International marathon.

On the Charles Bridge, close to our hotel and on the way to the start of the Prague International marathon.

Soon after the half marathon cut off in the Toronto race, participants started to “drop like flies“. People were on the sidewalks puking and rolling around in pain – no exaggerations, really! I certainly wasn’t feeling that bad but it did plant some fear in me. I was wandering off into the unknown, my only goal was to finish, with grace and style. There was no way I was going to puke!

My Toronto Waterfront, 2009 run ended up being too much on the conservative side. I finished the race at 4:29:20 with a smile on my face and no real sense of pain or pushing myself. Within hours, I was feeling 100% and ready to go running again?!? A very different experience from my first half-marathon a year earlier at the same event, more on this later.

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Posted in Czech Republic, Injuries, Prague International Marathon, Races | 1 Comment »

Silva Nortica Run

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
Silva Nortica Marathon, June 12, Czech Republic

Silva Nortica Marathon, June 12, Czech Republic

My next big race and my first cross-country event, The Silva Nortica, starts in Austria and ends in the Czech Republic. The race ranges from road running all the way up to cross-country trails. Included in the race requirements are the need to carry a passport in order to cross the border at the end of the race.

I’m excited about this race for many reasons. The location is exotic, the race is unusual and I get to indulge in my joy of cross-country running. In the nearby woods of Brno, Czech Republic, where I’m currently training, I’ve found the woods to be enchanting. Not as wild as the Canadian forest but certainly as green and tended to with the greatest of love and respect.

Jana has explained to me that in the past communist regime and even before there developed a great passion in the public for hiking and walking. Apparently this is what you do when you feel like a “caged animal“, go for walks and “clean the woods“. The legacy is a fantastic array or trails and a culture that loves to use them. Unfortunately it also means that the people I’ve encountered on the trails typically stare with a disgruntled expression when I attempt to wave or say “hello”. I suspect I might make progress on this front if I make an effort to speak in Czech. I’m going to start with “Dobré ráno” (Good Morning) and “Dobrý den” (Hello).

Long term, my motivation for running in this event is to run in ultra cross country events, Ultramarathons (42km+). I’ve publicly stated that I plan to participate in The Canadian Death Race as a member of a relay team in August 2011 and solo in 2012. This race is a great example of how extreme the ultra events can be:

125 km course begins and ends on a 4200 foot plateau, passes over three mountain summits and includes 17,000 feet of elevation change and a major river crossing at the spectacular Hell’s Gate canyon

Running in the woods, exploring the world, learning new languages… life is good!

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Posted in Czech Republic, Races, Running Locations, Silva Nortica | 1 Comment »