K100 Virtual (50,21km / 2134m+), Liptovský Ján, 13.3.2021

 "Kati, K100 Virtual, fancy joining?"

"Sure!"

In two weeks: "Kati, I have a foot and heel injury, I'm gonna be out of training for at least two months.. 😔" "And I'm in (Covid) quarantine for two weeks again..." "Ah, ok... let's forget about that."

The following week: "So I'm rehabbing and strengthening the foot.. and it's 80 percent better!" "I'm going for a (Covid) test on Monday, if it's negative, then we'll go on the 13th!"

And so we went.

  

Since we wanted to comply with the (Covid) current measures and regulations, I am planning a beautiful course for us within Liptov region, hoping that the trail will be runnable and won't be covered with a meter deep snow, neither with any ice. I have several alternatives ready in my head that we can use operationally, depending on the conditions on the given day. I love planning running trips 😀 I'm sending a mapped route to Katarína to get her hooked, but as it turns out later, she is not very good at reading maps... during the run, she will be sending us in the opposite direction than our route more than once. She was probably looking at the map upside down 😄 It's okay, sweet ignorance is useful sometimes. Katka is about to lose her ultrarunning virginity at this event.

Two days before the planned D-day, there was beautiful and heavy snowfall 😅

D-day is 13.3.2021. Nice date. Start is scheduled at 6:00 in Liptovský Ján. Katka and Martin arrive at 6:15. I forgive Katka her academic quarter hour, after all, she is a teacher, she can afford it. And so we set off on the footpath around a thermal spring tub and under the St. John's viewpoint. Waking up slowly we discuss the didactics of English at the first level of primary school, the functioning of online teaching and all sorts of other things, while looking for a good position for our poles. They get on Katka's nerves at first, but later she'll be grateful that I told her to take them.

The path winding under a mountain leads us to Borová Sihoť, where I pour mineral water into two soft flasks and drink it right away. We continue running through the campsite, along the embankment next to Váh and below Zapač to Liptovská Porúbka. We run up the village, admire the picturesque houses at its end and behind them turn right towards Vislavice. Some guy is walking up the meadow. We agree with Katka that we will stop for a snack and pee pause round the corner. I hope the guy won't be there anymore so I can pee in peace. But he's there, even with a van, and it's Katkin Martin 😄 we probably still have foggy eyes or something because we didn't recognize him at first. We didn't expect him to be there at all. Martin takes the poles from my hands so that I can run to the bushes to do what I need to do, and I have total Ultralanovka's déjà vu (to get the context, read here: Ultralanovka 2020 Virtual).

 After a short break, we continue along the forest road, on which there is a layer of fresh snow and clear ice underneath. Neither of us have crampons. Mine tore about a month ago and I didn't want to deal with new ones, since this winter is (hopefully) coming to an end. We're sort of dancing our way upwards. I tell Katka that I haven't seen bear tracks yet this early spring, and the bears are probably still holed up now that it's gotten colder. A second later we are taking pictures of huge bear paws in the snow on the road. Teddy went down from above, that is, in the opposite direction than us. So we follow his footsteps further up, under Smrekovica, then sharply to the left. The snow is getting heavier, the tracks from the cars have disappeared and we are wading and sliding in Teddy's footsteps. Under the fresh snow, there is either ice or a layer of old, trampled on snow with deep, hard dents, so we're either getting stuck, or our legs are being twisted, or both at once.

A long traverse takes us to places with nice views. Too bad it's cloudy. There is no end to the climb, it already seems to us that the path starts to slope downwards, but behind every bend there is another ascent. 

              

Before long, however, we join the red marked track and the long-awaited downhill from Smrekovica to L. Ján follows. Well, long-awaited... after 500 meters, we would have given anything to be able to continue climbing in peace. The trail turned into a non-trail, our run into a non-run, we felt like we were at a "find your mark" contest or that this is a DIY trail that you have to pave, walk through and, I guess even mark yourself. Simply "Trail Smrekovica" is ideal for training epic downhills. At times when we could run we actually couldn't because it was brutally slippery 😂 we did this section at a pace of I guess 60 min/km. Uprooted trees, deep snow and a steep slope didn't change the fact that we still enjoyed it and were constantly laughing about something. I explain to Katka that this is the real ULTRA - the worse, the better. I reassure her and myself that this is probably the worst part on the route, and the others will be fine. Katka notes that the bar is set low enough by this section, so she is not worried 😂 That calms me down quite a bit.

       

Finally, we ran to a small icy meadow (Kati, why is there still ice in the meadow?) and a nice forest trail behind it. As we jog along, suddenly a bear roars 30 meters behind our asses. We stop and listen for a second to see if we've heard right, focus our eyes in the bushes, but we can't see anything. Everything around is brown and the Teddy either blends in with the environment or cowardly hides somewhere behind the trees and bushes. He roars once more and we kick the propeller and run between huts and houses to our base camp. We describe the bear experience to Martin, saying that it would be pretty stupid if Katarína was eaten by a bear at the 20th kilometer of her first ultra. Martin notes that the bear runs a lot in a day, and with the watch in his belly, he would still rack up some kilometers here and there. Katka remarks that he (the bear) wouldn't synchronize it with Strava though, so what then. After all, what's not on Strava never happened 😆 Well, we've covered 19 kilometers and we don't even feel it. When there is great company and a great mood, a running buddy who doesn't get disturbed by anything and takes it all with humor, the kilometers add up (or count down), one doesn't even know how. So, that would be the foreplay, it was a bit rough, but luckily it didn't hurt too much.

                          

After a short snack and refreshment, we continue with a nutritious climb up the slope to Javorovica. This is where I often come to train, I am familiar every meter here, and my brain knows that I just have to grit my teeth and climb up. The reward usually is the beautiful views of Western Tatras and the surrounding area. But not today, because it's cloudy 😅 However, it doesn't take anything away from our mood. There is a nice path through the forest after we've climbed up the ski slope, and we are looking forward to running all the way to Sedlo Rakytovica. We'll evaluate that we won't go all the way up to Poludnica today (we don't have the crampons), and we'll traverse the peak following the green trail to Kúpeľ. A beautiful single trail leads through the forest. It feels very nice to run and not have to deal with deep snow, hidden ice or climbing over fallen trees.

 

We follow someone's footsteps and soon we catch up with the someone - they are two of Katka's students - a girl and a boy, heading to Poludnica, taking this less frequented detour route. The teacher informs them that we have covered around 25 kilometers and we are about halfway there. The students look at her admiringly. After a brief educational and motivational influence on the youngsters, we continue on through the virgin snow and this time it is our turn to tread the path.

The pleasant trail will soon smoothly and unobtrusively turn into an unwalkable anti-trail. We are looking for a path under a layer of snow, we are looking for points for correct and safe footing, we are looking for a green mark.Good thing I have a navigation system in my watch. In winter, these places look completely different from what we remember from summer. Finally, we arrive at Kúpeľ, from Kúpeľ, we shuffle down to Sedlo pod Kúpeľom, from there we slide down the icy section to join the Iľanovská dolina. Martin is supposed to meet us there somewhere. We meet him shortly.

Iľanovská dolina is quite nice for running, so we let it go down until "Za Vrátami". Katka refuels herself with with gels and water, I refuel myself with chocolate, we say goodbye to Martin and the start of the trail leading around Demänovská hora awaits us. This climb is steep, but also long. Again, runnable sections alternate with non-runnable ones, we climb over a fallen tree here and there and look for a path, and on a higher meadow we wade through deep snow. We reckon that we are probably the first and only ones here this winter. From Iľanovská dolina, we did not come across any tracks except animal ones. Katka notes that it's deep here, but sunny 😁 it also looks like we reached the peak, but we did not - the climb continues in the forest behind it. The sun flashes through the trees and we keep hoping that the uphill will soon turn downhill, but it doesn't and doesn't and doesn't... Believe me, never trust the sun among the trees that fools you to be at the peak 😅

  

Finally we are at the top, the trail changes from a 45-degree slope to a horizontal slope and the traverse is runnable. We come across the tracks of a wolf pack and a little further we jump over the remains of their feast (bones, meat, blood, droppings...), which apparently took place here only recently - this moment has a touch of magic - wolves have a special charm for me. I absorb this moment in the magic of the here and now...

The traverse is long, but we are approaching the crossroads below Demänovská hora's peak. This is followed by a steep, but quite runnable, somewhat slippery zigzag run down to ATC Bystrina, where Martin is already waiting for us with a van and hot broth. He then plans to drive back to Liptovsky Ján to our base camp and do his 25km fartlek before me and Katka reach the finish line (approx. 11km and approx. 200m up and down). I don't know how he had it calculated, but without a doubt, he's a great runner and he can certainly shimmy the van to Ján and still run his two-hour training in an hour and a half like it's a piece of cake 😂

 

After a short but hearty refreshment the two of us embark on the last section leading from ATC Bystrina through muddy meadows and dirt roads winding up and down and up and down through Ploštín, Iľanovo, Závažná Poruba to L. Ján. With tons of mud on our shoes, we ask what is better, this mud down here or the snow up there. We both agree that the snow up there 😀 (the moral lesson from the whole run is that a person always longs for something he doesn't have, and when he has it, he doesn't appreciate it, and only when he loses it, he realizes that he misses it and longs again after what he doesn't have and doesn't appreciate what he has and so on and on and forth 😇).

The last long climb up the village brings us to our base camp. I congratulate Katarínka on her successful first ultra trail in such difficult conditions. In the parking lot, we keep chatting and exchange impressions and experiences from the whole day, we laugh, Katka transforms herself from INTERgalactic to ULTRAgalactic and is happy to put the status on Facebook that she had already written in her head yesterday 😊