Ultrarunner's notes

 Celebrating spring with a winter run for a good thing     Anyone who knows me knows that winter ultras and I don’t get along too well. I’m a lizard — I need to bask on warm rocks, with sunburned skin and heat on my back. I once ran a winter hundred — Letecká 100 — but back then a wild spring was raging, so I basically dodged all winter conditions 🤷‍♀️. So when I heard about the 10th annual ALS run adding a brand-new 65 km route, it didn’t even tempt me. Late March can be tricky — mostly cold — and I wasn’t about to risk trudging through snowdrifts on a ridge, slipping down icy slopes of Kozí Kameň, or shivering for endless hours. The past three years, we’ve helped at aid stations in Batizovce or Spišská Teplica, and I assumed this year would be the no different. Then one day, I got a message from Mirko Hollý telling me I should go ahead and sign up and not to worry about the aid station - they’d handle it. I politely declined at first, but well… the idea was planted...

 Finally, a Proper Hot Summer Run It’s been two years since the late-summer gem Hriňovská 100 shrank down to just under 80 kilometers and flipped the route in the opposite direction—but none of that took away from its magic. It still managed to lure me in 😅 The course winds through places with names that sound like they were pulled straight out of Tolkien’s Eriador: Bratkovica, Málinec, Ďubákovo (more on THAT climb from Málinec to Ďubákovo later), Slopovo, Utekáč, Táňovo, and so on. In short: pure Tolkien. Photo: Monika Dratwa The start and finish are in Kokava nad Rimavicou, a quirky little town nestled among the green hills of the Vepor Mountains. They’ve got the best pizza—if not in all Slovakia, then definitely in Kokava nad Rimavicou. On Friday evening, hobbits, elves, and dwarves start gathering in the town square by the fountain, where check-in and bib collection takes place at the cultural center. Adding to the whole picture are the local Nazgûls lurking about in the gl...