Foto Peter Mečiar
At K2 - Ochodnica, 18.km, Belo motivates us for the next part with the words "Enjoy next 20 km without refreshment!" Well, thank you very much! 😁 It will be without refreshment, but with plenty of mud and a "suitcase" (getting lost) 😅 logging is going on in many places, the trail is dug up from forest machinery and is terribly muddy.
Fortunately, there are fewer such sections than these:
I start talking with Philippe and fate will arrange it so that we will run a large part of the route together. With him this time I am practicing my English. We rap almost in unison and discuss just about every running topic in the world - races in Slovakia and abroad, all sorts of things related to running, gels, watches, elite runners, and I'm trying to figure out what makes the French men come to live in Slovakia. The answer is simple - there's a woman behind everything 😀
Around the 30th km a kind of muscle ache settles onto me, it stuck with me and didn't leave me until the finish. All of a sudden every muscle in my body aches. I run the rest of the route in physical discomfort and just try to ignore it. Sometimes I'm more successful, sometimes less, and I'm looking forward to the finish line.
Vladko catches up with us and I interview him on the topic: How is it possible to run all the hundreds in the area and on the calendar, that is, every or every other weekend. He says that once the legs are up and running, they go 😀 He notes that he is looking forward to the fact that he will be 50 years old in a month and then probably he will be able to achieve some podiums, at least in the age category. I encourage him, for sure. Thanks to the fact that I'm already an old racket, I managed to stand on the podium a few times in my category of "teenage girls" 😀 it was usually when the competition although good, was scarce. Still, the feeling was worth it. I would give it to everyone. And Vladko runs away.
The kilometers pass one after the another, and this is how we run through the K3 in Dlhá nad Kysucou at the 39th km (where I find out that Dlhá (Long) nad Kysucou is somewhat too long):
 | Photo Jérôme
...and we arrive at K4 Semeteš - 49.km. There we are greeted by a DNFed but cheerful Jérôme, drop bags and pasta 😋 I do what I need to do, I eat what I can and go to the next section. Philippe will catch up after he's eaten his sweet potato puree with a secret recipe from his girlfriend Katka. And so I peck my way alone through meadows, forests and estates. There is a busy work environment, everyone is sawing and chopping wood for the winter, somewhere something is being ground, some other place something is being drilled, from somebody's yard I.M.'s Fear of the Dark is playing, and all this adds to the atmosphere of a Saturday afternoon.
I run through the forests and mountain meadows above Makov, where the grandfather is riding his motorcycle with his grandson in a mini helmet on a mini motorcycle, it's lovely, but it's not. I'm disturbed by the loud engine noise, which just doesn't suite me there. They cross my path twice and I, immersed in my physical discomfort, silently hate them and stare at them.
The Frenchman catches up with me on this work of art: |
 | Dolmen of life and death
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.. and we continue the debate where we left off before. Vladko runs around us, wonders how we can talk so much and disappears into the forest. We pass a few more muddy sections and I give up hope that I might not arrive at the finish line as a pig this time. At the same time, it's getting overcast and I think I can hear thunder in the distance somewhere. Did you hear it too?
Here somewhere we connect to the Beskydy-Javorník ski cross-country route. It must be a beautiful cross-country skiing area here in winter...
At the 66th kilometer in Sedlo pod Lemešnou there is a secret checkpoint, which is not so secret after all, because I noticed that it was marked in the checkpoint card 😀 Jakub V. shouts at me from a distance and when we arrive, he marks the card and offers us everything - today, as always, the tables at the refreshment stands are bent under all sorts of delicacies from all over the world. The orgs really do try to please everyone - carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, fruitarians, gluten-free, junk-fooders and pranayama alike, there's plenty to choose from.
The unplanned refreshment did us well and we are commencing the ascent under Veľký Javorník. We climb steeply through the forest for a bit, after a while the slope eases and before we know it, we are up at K5 - Kasárne, Hotel Fran, 71.km. They don't have soup, but they have a warm, friendly word and a toilet 😊 I charge my watch, grab something to eat and we set off into the dusk. The slope above the hotel is steep, but short, and at Veľky Javorník we are greeted not only by tourists, but also by red panoramas with a view of the just set sun.
 | Photo Peter Mečiar
A long section awaits us along the border ridge. It's nice at first until it's not nice. I'm having some kind of latent crisis, as Julka B would call it. It's getting dark and we're running through the forest and the dark and the woods and the mud, and somehow there's nothing to distract me. I'm letting myself go. I try to hold on to Philippe with my teeth and nails or at least keep him in sight. But everything really hurts. It costs me a lot of mental strength to maintain my balance and pace in the slippery, uneven terrain, ducking into the cone of headlamp light. I take sugar, then Edgar gel to put me out of my misery for a while. I'm going inertly. Fortunately, this section was not very long and the red flashing lights guide us to the Portáš hut, where K6 - 82.km is located. A Czech lady is standing in front of the cottage and shouts at us with her children: "All the racers are fighters! All the racers are fighters!" and they applaud us for dear life. In my strange mood, I almost spilled myself into porridge there 😭. Braňo Z. saves me from dying of impression emotions, who welcomes us in with a smile and clicks our cards. |
 | Photo Jérôme
They have excellent vegetable soup and pleasant company. I take both. Balm for the soul. Braňo approaches and asks if we are already clicked. I inform him that I have been since birth. At the same time, we learned about a HOAX about the re-marking of the route somewhere around the Pápajské sedlo. It is said that some cottagers went went mad and did it. But it wasn't true, the route was deliberately marked in a place where the sign slightly deviated from the border and this turn was blocked by a fallen tree. So the signers passed by and re-marked a new turn a little higher up. However, the red mark was feeding back to the border before long anyway. In addition to ribbons, we were also guided by reflectors, and they were reliable. Fortunately, some had gpx in their watches and could be navigated in case of missing markings. Unfortunately, some did not have it 🤷♀️
 | | Photo Jérôme |
While I'm replenishing my calories, Philippe is hitting the track. We nod to each other, I say goodbye to Katka too. I know I won't catch up with him, but I don't want to hold him back. It's been very nice to share such a piece of the journey and I'm grateful for it. However, there were a few moments on the next stretch when I was screaming in my head: Give me that Frenchman back!
I leave Portáš into the night together with several others, but I don't feel like socializing. I try to pretend I'm not there. I just want to let myself go and suffer in solitude. Everything gets on my nerves. Help! This 13km section was longer than both 20km without refreshment sections together. On top of it was a cherry on top, the so-called a vomit hill, Makyta Hill. Roof up, roof down. It's short, but it's such a pain in the ass, and it's the nail in the coffin for all my soreness. Whatever. I have to get through it somehow. But I will lie down in the coffin not sooner than at the finish line 😅 Whenever gloomy thoughts come over me, I think of Tomáš Š., who is just doing FKT at SNP route. Gloomy thoughts turn red with shame and immediately shut up.
The forest ends and we stand at the top of the another ski slope. Below it is the last check point and aid station. I trot spastically down the bank and longingly hypnotize the red blinker, which flashes tirelessly at the foot of the hill and, like a decoy, beckons us to ad to our stride. I add to my stride. I'm already halfway down the slope and the blinker isn't approaching. There it stands in the distance and brazenly flashes and still does not come closer. I'd better stop and speak to the horse, who is grazing quietly there, lifting his head and listening to my voice.
I guess he told me to keep my head up, I only have a short way to go. And so I start running again, eventually I go around the cheeky flashing light and I'm at K7 - Beňadín, 95.km. There, I'll rest a bit again and climb the last section of the route. After a long, long ascent on the asphalt and swinging over a soaked meadow, an unpleasant descent full of mud, slippery stones sticking out of the pavement, potholes, and swamp brings me to my knees. Another nail in my coffin. A vein of frustration swells up on my forehead and tears of despair spill in my eyes. The run feels endless. My cries of profanity of the coarsest curses echo into the silence of the night, every time I skid, or slip into a swamp, or sink into the mud. Then I laugh at myself because I'm funny to myself. I think of Luca D., who struggled in the Julian Alps, literally ankle-deep in mud. My expletives of the coarsest grain turn red with shame and immediately shut up. After all, it all belongs to trail running and ultra running 😑 It would be boring without it. Kitsch. I look at my watch and see that the Mordor will end soon anyway, and the trail spits me out onto the asphalt in Lysá pod Makytou.
Just a few more kilometers up the sleepy town to the Primary School and I'm at the finish line of the Javornícká 100 2022. I'm approaching the school. There are only lonely SUT beach flags and silence, nobody nowhere. Jérôme jumps out of the shadow of the door, shouts "Petra!!!" and opens the school door for me. And there it boils 😍 there is the real finish line. There is applause, a cowbell, I stop my watch and have smile on my face. Rado congratulates me, checks the control card and hands me over my diploma, Julka comes in, then Vandulienka, we share our impressions of the run and congratulate each other. I am happy. Time 17 h 30 min. In 2015, this time would have been enough for first place and in some other years for a podium position. Today it's just a gray average 😅 Time progresses fast, women run even faster and perform beautiful ultra-galactic performances (men too of course 😇).
Both photos by Jérôme
Women: 1. Monika Stejskalová (CZE) 12:15:12 2. Lenka Hiklová (SVK) 13:07:41 3. April Jelinek (USA) 13:41:12 Men: 1. Petr Hének (CZE) 10:17:42 2. Tomasz Kik (SVK) 10:48:08 3. Lukáš Koprivý (SVK) 11:23:21 |
My girls have already brought their stomachs this time and so they managed to run beautiful times. Zuzka in fifth place and Majka in eighth place. I'm glad that they enjoyed it today 😊
I clap hands with Philippe and his Katka - he finished 20 minutes ahead of me, I shake hands with Vladko and others. This is it 😀 The pain in the body is trumped with pure joy in the soul. All I need for perfect happiness is a shower and hot soup.
Julka serves us like kings, tries to fulfill our every wish and serves me soup with eighteen spoons. I sit with Adam D. and Julo H., who are already in an advanced stage of decomposition. Apparently, both of them are Aztec, they lead an Aztec life and have been having a long debate about this Aztec life for a few hours. I'm also currently in the half-life, so I completely understand everything. I get everything they are talking about and I am having fun too 😁
Majka is resting upstairs in the school gym. I am going up there to do so as well. I find a free place among the discarded corpses and lie down in my coffin. What a pleasure it is 😅 There's an alternative wood sawing competition going on up here, but I'm not taking part in this one. At least I hope I'm not. I stretch my sore knuckles, looking for a position on the hard ground. It's still alive down there. I fall into an intermittent coma to the tunes of some blues singer's songs (I hereby ask Rado to send me the singer's name in the messenger - I'm also hereby checking whether he has read this far 😎). The blues singer will be replaced by R.E.M. and I'm transported somewhere to my high school days. Here and there I am snapped out of my coma by occasional thunderous applause and a cowbell, which is used to welcome other night runners who have arrived to the finish. Then there is just shut-down. When I wake up again, it's already morning and it's quiet downstairs.
It's coffee time. Julka, an angel with black hair, flies around us, serves us a life booster, and we try, like beggars, to beg a ride to Čadca from the zombies wandering around. However, they are all somewhat posh and say they go by train. In the end, we are saved by Mário J., "the vain hope of the Slovak Olympic biathlon selection" (Julka B., on Sunday after J100 2022), who promises us a place in his car.
Majka's Coros navigator joins us and we find out that we all know each other from the legendary Run to Siná, which he used to organize and which had two or three editions, but which forever entered the history of Liptov mountain running and carved a line into my heart - that's where I date my beginnings of mountain running, there I saw Majka with my own eyes for the first time, who I guess won then, as usual. There, at the top of Siná, I made friends with my English teacher Katka Hybka, with whom we have been running and having running adventures ever since. Wow, how far have we moved from Siná. To Javorníky 😁
After coffee, breakfast, a mega-dose of laughter and a hugging ritual with Peťo K., we put ourselves into Plain Hope's car and the ultra-fairy tale is over. Good triumphed over evil, everyone finally climbed out of their coffins, went home and lived happily ever after until they died in another ultra-fairytale.
The Universe loves us 😊
Finally, a few non-toxic-positive motivational quotes from the entrance lobby of the primary school in Lysá pod Makytou:
"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." T. A. Eddison
"To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice." Confucius
"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." M. Gorkij
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