Javornícka 100 2023 (106km / 4158m+), Čadca - Lysá pod Makytou, 7.10.2023
Yeah, it's over now, but I can breathe somehow...
What goes through a person's mind, when they stand at the start of a 100km race? What goes through their mind when, at seven in the morning, together with 200 other runners, at the sound of the starting gun, they set off on a 100km route into a cold autumn morning? They are ready, determined, prepared to run 12, 15, 18, 20 hours. The story of that day can take a thousand different paths and turn out in a thousand different ways. Today, we will all die a little and be reborn again, each in our own way.
Čadca is still asleep as we run up the stairs from one square to the other, muscles still cold, body not warmed up. However, in the heart, there is a flame of togetherness and common adventure that we will all experience together but all of us a little differently. They say we should have our own republic 😅 I'm all for it. The cold city stairs and an estate pavement lead to wet single-track in the dewy grass. The dawn is gloomy and non-epic, not like last year when everyone stopped and drew their mobiles as if on a command.
Both photos by Photo.Juroko
Today will be different, in a taste of late-summer. Autumn is late and everything is green and colorless. The sun hides behind a gray haze. I run along familiar sidewalks and paths and feel a slight fatigue in my muscles. The body didn't have a chance to recover after the Kosice Peace Marathon five days ago, but I've expected that. I anticipate that it will hurt today and I'm curious to see what it will do to me, which path my story will take today and how it will end (spoiler: it started to hurt really bad from the twentieth kilometer and didn't stop until the finish line, actually it hurt a lot days after the race 😅).
Despite the fatigue, I run comfortably, I don't overdo it, I don't push too much. I want these Javorníky to be a reward for all the hardships on V100, BBU60+, and Košice. Once again, I am grateful for a day without rain, for dry trails and dry feet. Even though everything around is still summer-green, you can already feel autumn in the cool air and cold wind. It seems like only yesterday that we were running the first race of the season and today is the last one on the list. Days, weeks, months have passed, like water in the wild Rajčianka, and we emerged another summer more experienced, better, prettier 😆.
Around the tenth kilometer, Karin and her four-paws partner Towie catch up with me and together we drag it to about 70. km. It's really cool and I'm glad we're running together. While chatting, I forget about sore muscles and tired body. I perceive only the beauty of the surrounding nature. Blooming brown plush grass gently waving in the wind. Velvet-green meadows all around. The ridge of Little Fatra on the far horizon, accompanying us for almost the entire first half of the route. We run through forests and meadows, through logging yards. Towie cools off in deep puddles. We pass through estates, through Rozprávkovo, along the Beskydsko-Javornícka ski cross-country trail, past cute cottages, lookout towers and artistic monuments. It's beautiful here. Somewhat different. I remember many sections from last year and some I don't recall at all.
The sun is already high and it's pleasantly warm. The cold wind has stopped and the grey haze has dissipated. Above us, there is just the infinite blue of sheer freedom and the simple joy of living. I have nothing and everything in me at the same time - a feeling of simple lightness of being and that is the most. Step by step the kilometers dwindle (or add up, depending on whether one is an optimist or a pessimist looking at it, and whether it is the first half of the route or the second), we sail through aid stations where we are pampered and cared for in a way we probably don't even deserve. Smiling, tireless, helpful volunteers serve us like no other.
We are passing fellow runners, each of them has their own story to tell today. Familiar sections pass under our feet and I remember where and what conversations we had with Jérôme and Philippe exactly a year ago. Back then it was much wetter, muddier and puddled here, today it's deliciously pleasant. All that's left is that I'm still Je ne parle pas français 🙆Jérôme meanwhile managed to escape back to France and come back, Philippe has properly got up to speed and is running fast, and they're both still the same super fun great dudes. Today they are here too - Jérôme at the aid stations and Philippe is running with his friend Marcin, who is doing his first 100km. They passed me, both fresh and crispy, at the beginning, so I'm sure that they'll enjoy it today and Marcin will have a wonderful experience.
K4 Semeteš serves the best coffee and pasta, 90's music is blaring from the speakers, runners are enjoying their comfort and discomfort, it's just so lively here. We soak it all in and move on through the homesteads. Here, somewhere, a year ago, Iron Maiden was playing full blast, there they were sawing wood there. Today there is a similar afternoon-Saturday-around-the-house-work activity. Only in Sedlo pod Lemešnou, where the secret check point used to be, it is deserted today. I prefer to quickly enter the forest and climb up shortly but steeply. Who knows where dusk will catch me today. I'm setting myself sub-goals (Fran, Portáš, Makyta, Beňadín) and my biggest concern is the border ridge with the cherry on top - the one and only, legendary Makyta 💓
A cold wind starts to blow and it is drizzling. The brown grass waves wildly and the wind quarrels loudly with the treetops. However, the trails are still dry and the whole ridge is actually quite kind to us. In the morning, I worriedly imagined myself stumbling along the sidewalk between the border posts in the dark, and here I am. And I'm stumbling only a little 😄. I feel gratitude. My legs are already weak, like tea leached a hundred times, and I can't run up or down very much if the path is steep and full of rocks. But it does not matter. I'm still moving forward and I'm still on those wobbly legs.
Life Base Portáš and its life-saving Nescafe, soup and brownies. Not to mention the people 🙏. In the nocturnal silence of my mind resonates the echo of last year's "All the racers are fighters! All the racers are fighters!" I observe myself for a while and it seems to me that today, despite the deadly physical state, I am in a much better mental state than then. From the warmth of the cottage, we step back into the wind and step by step along the endless Javornícky border ridge. At its end, there is a disgustingly steep descent to Papajské sedlo and then a disgustingly steep climb to Makyta. A Cherry on top. Or a raspberry? A piece of cake for some. The famous Slovak music band Horkýže Slíže catch up with me (one of the runners is playing them full blast on his phone) and blurt out into the silence of the night that "They terribly enjoy this world"... but I don't know... they don't sound very convincing. I prefer to let them go forward, because I really don't want to listen to "The strong chorus like no other" behind my back. After a while, Kuko's singing reverberates somewhere in the distance perpendicularly above, and there's only a flash of headlamp light up there somewhere. Everything around me becomes silent again.
Up by the summit signpost of Makyta, I remind myself again that I'm grateful to be here (so far). Just need to run straight down to Beňadín for one last check point. It hurts. After a harrowing steep downhill full of roots and rocks, I run out of the woods into a well-known meadow with corrals (only the horse is no longer there), and in the distance I hear the rumble of the aid station. It seems awfully far away to me. It should be down below this hill, but you can hear the noise from behind the other hill. That can't be possible... My heart sinks. But thankfully, it was just my tired senses deceiving me. I see the familiar, red flash light. The rumbling is getting closer. Jérôme and his gang from K7 Beňadín cheer like as if they were at UTMB. Or at the finish. Like.. like crazy!. Meeting April washes new emotions out of me. Another milestone behind me. I will manage, I am sure.
I stay for a while and with another loud roar we continue along with a few fellow runners to the last section. We run about 20 meters, let the fans be happy and when they can't see us anymore, we slow down 😀 Marcin joins me here, having dropped out from fast running Philippe, and together we make it all the way to Lysá. I describe the rest of the route to him and he is not very enthusiastic about my description 😁 Through pain and fatigue, we trot where we can. I wish for it to end and at the same time for it to last forever and never end. Stars in the sky, solid dry earth underfoot. That's is quite helpful today. The last bumpy descent spits us out onto the asphalt that leads us to ZŠ Lysá pod Makytou. We're here. I've been visualizing this moment the whole time. The moment when I stop, I pause my watch, the event staff records my number and time, and I sit down, not having to go anywhere anymore. Only to the showers. I congratulate to Marcin on his first 100km. Everyone is inside and welcomes us. Majka, Saška, Paťo, Peťo, Peťo, Philippe, Monča, everyone... Hugs, congratulations. Congratulations to Karin on her first 100km. Congratulations to Oksana on her first 100km. I'm done. Finished. Shower, food, soup, drink, chat. Saška flies around us as around her own patients and fulfills all our possible and impossible wishes. She would even resurrect us if she had to. A perfect masterpiece is perfectly mastered.
"Yeah, it's over now,
but I can breathe somehow.."
Thank you to the organizers for the opportunity to experience all this. For the perfectly marked route, for all the care at the aid stations and at the finish, for the tip top weather and conditions on the route (I'm sure they have a hand in it, because they love us so much). How many runners have passed through their hands over the years of organizing ultra trail races and long-distance hikes... no one can count. Today, they can happily tick off another beautiful mega successful event and another completed ultra season. You are awesome.
The new morning is cold and cloudy, later rainy. I am still riding the wave of the experiences and emotions of the previous day and night. Everything hurts incredibly, but I feel inner peace and happiness.
And so ends the adventure in the Javorniky Mountains and the story of the entire 2023 season. With curiosity, I will look forward to seeing what the next one brings.
"When the world moves too fast
and you lose yourself in the chaos,
introduce yourself
to each color of the sunset.
Reacquaint yourself with the earth
Thank the air that surrounds you
with every breath you take.
Find yourself in the appreciation of life."
- Christy Ann Martine
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