Foto: Zuzka M.
Before the start, we meet and greet with Zuzka M., manage to take some photos together, and to the sounds of the chilly Rado's flute-play, we start off into the fading rainy day. We cover a few km of Hriňová first and then a nice warm up awaits us up the ski slope.
 | Foto: Kuko
I like ski slopes, I often go to train on some of the ones in my area. But I'm not rushing today, why smash my muscles right at the start, right? I think about what I'm going to think about on the way. I have a blank mind. No thoughts, nothing comes to my mind. What am I going to be meditating about for 20 hours? I admit that the first 30 km seem a bit blurry to me. I only remember: Up on the slope, I'm waving at Lenka K. K1 Táňovo (10.km) - Peťa Š. refills my Coke and I thank her with my mouth full.
 | | Foto: M. Ivanová |
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 | Foto: M. Ivanová
 | Foto: M. Ivanová
Running through a meadow, where the brownish-yellow grass contrasts with the dark green juniper trees - it reminds me of the slopes of Podpoľanie. Concert of crickets. We run through the awakening estates, huddled in hills. Dogs are barking. The horses in the corrals check us from afar to see if we are dangerous predators coming to chase and eat them. The rain stops. Water evaporates from the hills and mist rises from the valleys. Forests are blooming in autumn... A bell is ringing somewhere. In some village, I pet black stallion's nostrils (yes, I checked to see if it was a stallion and not a gelding 😂). This moment reminded me of my horsey, which symbolizes a long ago but happy, beautiful and carefree time of my life. Thank you, black stallion, for that memory 💗
 | Peťa a Generál
 | Peťa a Generál
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In another homestead, I am making friends with three mini pugs, who run out of the yard with a furious bark and go to eat us. But as soon as I speak to them and let them smell my hand, they immediately become friends, let themselves be petted and would probably happily run with us.
Somewhere on that section there was a secret checkpoint with Peťo K., sitting like a king on a chair in the middle of the road. Great, then we should have the first secret one checked. There are two on the route, I'm guessing that the second one will be before or after Dobroč.
At K2 Bratkovica (20.km) the rain jacket is finally coming off, the camera is getting ready and something nice is being put in the stomach. At every aid station, I try to eat something salty, something sweet, something liquid, something solid, something dry and something juicy, some junk, some vitamins - there's nothing better than a balanced diet 😅.
At K3 Havrilovo (38.km) I meet Martin Ď., who passed me around on the ski slope in the morning, breathing heavily. Martin is running his eighth 100 and he supposedly is tired of racing with the boys, so he switched himself to the women's category. He challenges himself to chase me, then accepts this challenge and runs away. As always, I calmly eat, drink, refill what I need. Why rush. We already live quite busy days full of stress and I came here to relax 😌
I set off for the next section and catch up with Martin on the steep climb below Drahová - not that I did it on purpose, but it just happened like that. I shout at him that I already have him and so he better is about to start pushing. We run together for a while, in a group with other runners through the forest. The wasps are supposed to be here somewhere. I am alert. Wasps and hornets are my nightmare. I prefer a bear 😂 Fortunately, we didn't meet any wasps, it's probably too cold and wet for them today.
On the meadow at Drahová, Martin takes the obligatory Detvaj selfie and we move on. I go at my own pace and Martin is chasing me. I eventually run away from him across the meadow. I mean, not that I did it on purpose, but it just happened like that 😅 we run through forests and meadows, one homestead succeeds another, the mists roll over the hillsides and create an unmistakable atmosphere.
 | Foto: M Polkorábová
During the descent to Kokava, it thunders four times. I look at the heavy clouds over the hills opposite, wondering if the storm is going to stop us. Fortunately, the storm moved in a different direction and it only sprinkled a little here. I arrive at K4 Kokava nad Rimavicou (50.km) in a pretty good mood. It's lively in Tána's pub, I let myself be absorbed by the chit-chat and Inka asks me what I want, if I'd like some pasta. Somehow it is not to my taste today, so I gratefully decline, saying that I'll just have something else. Well, I know that in an hour I would regret it, so in the end I ask her for half a bowl and without olives. The pasta ended up fitting me pretty well. I'll also have a watermelon, a banana, a slice of bread with Lunter spread, some biscuits, a glass of Coke, refill the water, use the porcelain it's still raining outside and I'm so glad to be under the roof. I put on my waterproof jacket again, wrap my mobile phone in a plastic bag and leave. After a while it stops raining, so the jacket goes back into the vest and the mobile phone out of the vest.
Vladko catches up with me on a gentle climb. I let him in front of me, but he doesn't want to go, they have had some of those rum shots down in the pub and now he's suffering. He says that rum is the best cramps remedy! Well, if you don't want to be cramping, you have to withstand a little bit of suffering 😂
This is his homeland, and he and his buddies beautifully marked the entire route. In addition to the red and white streamers, there are also his hand-painted signs and marks on the signposts. He proudly shows me the ridge opposite, that we have actually just ran all the way, below it there is a village of Utekáč, where he lives. And that now it will be pleasantly runnable. So what has it been so far? Indeed, most of the route is runnable, it undulates under your feet, the kilometers pass like nothing and you pass the checkpoints one after another, what a joy to be here.
In the end, Vladko goes forward. The sun finally peeks out from behind the clouds. On K5 Lipová (61.km - 62km on my watch) I don't stay too long, I drink Coke, I eat a melon and a banana and continue - the next check is only 7 kilometers from here and there are drop bags and all sorts of other things 😅 there I will rest longer.
On the climb behind Lipová, I catch up with Vladko, who shows Martin H. the surrounding panoramas. And indeed, the views here are luxurious. The three of us continue together, the boys and I are doing well, the journey goes by pleasantly and quickly, in addition to conversations about all kinds of things, but mainly - surprisingly - about running 😁 Vladko continues to explain the route and the views, and this is how we pass all the way to K6 Ďubákovo (68.km - I clocked 69km). The guys will immediately camp near the liquid source and I'll go get dressed and eat. There is a great crew here, Lenka Sent and her merry gang, music, dance, they try to fulfill what they see in our eyes, they would bring us the blue from the sky. Lenka applies some Calendula Vaseline on my sore back. I don't know why, but we've had such trouble here lately:
SORE BACKS
I forgot to put Vaseline on it in the morning and I have already bitterly regretted it. Whatever. This relieved me at least for a while. Majka and I are going to start a club ULTRA SORE BACKS (so that ULTRA SORE LEGS have some competition 😁).
Lenka informs me that it is ONLY 45 kilometers to go. Uhm, wow.. 😬 I don't know if I needed to hear this right now 😂 so I'll quickly replace that information with a more acceptable one - we've ALREADY covered 70 kilometers! Basically, it is one and the same data - but I prefer glasses half full to half empty. Anyway, Ďubákovo had amazingly great life base for us, I felt very good when leaving there 😂
I run out into the beautiful afternoon. Charming clouds float lazily over the picturesque landscape, the air is fresh and fragrant, the visibility is sharp and the scenery is pleasing to the eye. The guys catch up with me again and we head towards Málinec together. Photos will tell more than my words:
Gypsies welcome us in Málinc and on K7 there is Jogošík crew (81.km, 83km on my watch). Janek is already waving at us from a distance and I wave my poles to greet him back. I was really looking forward to them 💗 Janek writes down our numbers and time, clicks the card and we go inside to the feast. I'd like some soup 😋 and they really have excellent broth here. Aďka with Peta Š. serve us like royalty, with Ada's assistance I recharge my watch on a power bank, then Martin H. happily sits on it 😁 it has survived. I learn that some of the other girls threw a Vomit Party today. And they didn't invite me (thank God, unfortunately)… luckily my stomach is working brilliantly today 💪
We exchange a lot of positive energy, laughter and hugs with the K7 crew, replenish food and fluids, and I again set off alone for the next section. The guys will stay a little longer... while I was inside, it somehow got colder. So I put on a long sleeve and a headlamp so I don't have to deal with it later. I enter the forest, go around someone and someone else goes around me and I'm alone again.
It gets dark a bit earlier in the forest. I don't turn on the headlamp just yet. I like it in the dark. I like it in the dark forest. I like being here alone, don't need to be lead by the hand 😁 There is silence and peace everywhere, everything has somehow calmed down. The crickets again perform a concert into the dark silence. Here and there I hear branches snapping nearby. Maybe deer, maybe a wild boar, maybe a cat... I feel completely ordinary happiness. I finally turn on the headlamp to see the path below my feet. I really enjoy the night woods. I must have merged with the nature again, or something...😁 but no, I'm not that much of a heroine, even if at some moments there is no one in sight, I know that there is definitely someone a few hundred meters in front of me and a few hundred meters behind me . Maybe it would be different if I was completely all alone here.
The guys catch up with me again somewhere behind Šutová jama (ditch), which BTW is on a hill, and we slowly approach K8 in Dobroč together in Indian style. But the approach takes forever... We have already done a loooong downhill, two villages, a bridge, and Dobroč is nowhere to be found. It's a good thing that boys are distracting me, otherwise I would probably have a decent mental break down. Rabbits and deer resting in the grass by the road also cheer me up. We finally run up to K8 (96.5km, I clocked 98.5km) and they say we have to prepare for a terrible moral climb to the Dobroč hill. So I load myself with all kinds of things, so that I don't get hungry on that monstrous hill, and I'm mentally preparing for a terribly steep, disgusting, long and endless ascent - something like Minčol via the blue trail.
I leave Belo's aid station without the boys again, but they will catch up with me somewhere. I'm already kind of tired - the clock is beeping that it's necessary to turn left, I'm turning right. Then it shows to go straight, I turn left.. Well, it's time for a sweetened coffee (it's the same as a caffeine pill with grape sugar 😃) I once remembered that Majka said that caffeine pills are great because they don't irritate the stomach, like coffee does. I also remembered that Lenka said in the podcast that the caffeine pill works best with sugar. You have to learn from the GOATS 😎 and I'm happy to pass this advice on. It really helped me and boosted my brain.
Behind the village, a gentle ascent to the meadow hill begins. The night has cleared completely and the moon is full. I am blown away by the beauty. A pleasant cool wind is blowing, the grass is waving and the trees are whispering loudly. I trot through the meadow and between the trees, a bit through the forest, a bit through the meadow again and I'm still waiting for that horrible climb to commence. Vladko catches up with me again, I'm telling him poems about this beautiful night. He says yeah, right, but he already wants to be at the finish line.. and rushes past me. I'm yelling at him asking when will the terrible moral upswing start, and he says that it's this here right now 😂 Yay, OK 😁 so this disappointed me. I will have to claim it.
In this high mood, I run to the K9 nad Brestinou (107 km, I have 110 km on my watch). I'm happy to see them, even if I can't see them and I have no idea who I'm talking to because they shine their headlights directly in my eyes 😁 but later I recognize some familiar faces. The cozy atmosphere of night aids by the fire, oh.. this is what I needed. So I'll grab something to survive the last bit, we'll exchange a few words, laugh a bit, and I want to apologize to Juraj T. for questioning his exact estimation of the remaining distance to the finish line. Yes, it was exactly six point something km, as he said 🙏 and not eight, as I claimed 😇.
I say goodbye to them and run down the asphalt to the last section. A short descent, an even shorter gentle ascent to Košútka, and I find myself at the top of the ski slope where we started in the morning. The circle has closed. Down below me, the night lights of Hriňová spread out, and at the foot of the slope in the guesthouse Košútka, music is heard in the distance. There is some kind of party, probably a wedding. And maybe a vomit party 😂
I'm already quite painfully trudging down the steep slope, but it will pass quickly. One more wander through the alleys, past the pizzeria and the roundabout, and there is the pre-finish line next to the Anka guesthouse where we slept, along the Elementary School and the flashing lights guide me to the final finish line. I see the SUT gate. I'm here 😅 Rado and I shake our fists 👊he looks like he's quite happy to see me at the finish line 😀 like every surviving ultra zombie finisher. I'm glad to see myself here too. Time 18:59. One o'clock in the morning. He congratulates me, checks the card with checkpoints (BTW, the second secret checkpoint was apparently just a fluke), asks how I am, if everything is ok, yes, everything is completely OK, as it should be 😅 Peťo K. hugs me again. I get a diploma and some instructions about tea and soup, showers and a night in the school gym. Vladko finished about half an hour before me. Martin H. arrives some 15 min after me. Martin Ď. gave me a really hard time and arrived at the finish line only one hour after me as the tenth woman. Lenka K. finished as the real tenth woman, and this fact somehow filled me with additional happiness. Do I know, why? 😂 But I was really happy for her.
Majka gave a beautiful performance and finished fifth woman overall and the first in her age category. Zuzka M. on sixth place. April Jelinek was the first to arrive with an ultragalactic time of 14:55. In men's category, Július Huszty won with 12:47, Patrik Hrotek in second place, two minutes after him. That's what I call a chase 😏. Anyway, take a look at the results here: results
I meet Monika H. in the showers, we exchange impressions. Apparently she was at the Vomit Party too... It's a good thing that I'm so slow and didn't make it to the party 😁 I take a quick cold shower, swallow the soup, tea, and slip into a sleeping bag in Majka's heated car. We also share our experiences and fall into an intermittent coma for a few hours.
The morning is cold. We get out of the car and go to check out the situation. Ľubka makes us excellent coffee, I also have some tea. We chat with Inka, Ľubka and others, have breakfast and cheer the last runners arriving. We've had a great time here 💗 and no, I'm not going to withdraw from Javornícka 100. I'm looking forward to it 😊
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