Letecká stovka 2024 (108km / 3600m+), Trenčín, 9.3.2024
Winter 100k with spring vibes
Last year, when I live-tracked the progress of Letecka stovka 2023 and then saw the photos full of winter chills, emotions and adventure, my little masochist in me said that he wanted to experience it too.
I counter that we don't like the cold, we can't stand so many hours in a snowstorm, wet, cold, blown by the icy wind. He says: let's wear a feather jacket, thick ski gloves, insulated leggings and waterproof overpants. Then we'll be fine 👌 Ultra-running is about finding comfort in discomfort. And this would be about stepping out of my comfort zone of discomfort. So I, the heat lover, am signing up.
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Photo: Peter Mečiar  The starting line is filling up fast, as are almost all the races this year that have already opened their registration. Over the winter I try to train in any weather, in any conditions. The girls and I go running in High Tatras and wrestle in waist-deep snow. Sure, this we might find useful on Letecka 😂. I'm trying to find a liking in the icy wind, the rain, the snow, the frozen bones, the white numb fingers. Something about it is starting to perversely appeal to me. But will I be able to last 17-18 hours like this? I don't know.   On Friday before the race, a classic scenario takes place - transfer by train to Trenčín, wandering around the city with Oksana. It's cold. We'll go to a cozy pizzeria for a nice dinner. Then the race check-in in a local Sports center, meeting other running buddies. I feel like I ran the last race a hundred years ago. I'm waiting for Monika, who promised to fix my big toe - it caught inflammation under my nail just on Thursday evening 😡. I can jog with it, but if I trip over a stone, I will scream in pain all over Panská Javorina and it will be heard from Beckov to Trenčín castle. The girls advise that I should pierce it under that nail. I can't do that. I text to Monika to see if she can rescue me at the event venue in Trenčín on Friday evening. She replies that she will bring everything necessary. Monika is an angel, she saved me - the operation was successful, the patient did not die and is still living a quality life.   So there is nothing standing in my way to throw myself into the clutches of winter and let myself be crushed to pieces. Except that winter actually almost didn't happen this year, and spring is currently raging outside. All that wading in waist-deep snow was useless and I won't have the right to moan today 😭 Never mind, spring has decided that it won't give us a total free ride either. She prepared no more than three not very long muddy sections and dusted us with snow at the top of Inovec. Just so we wouldn't feel sorry.  Right at the beginning we have a 20km long straight dike, thanks to which everyone made a personal best 50km today. The peloton is going fast and furious, racing the wind. But the wind can't make its mind which way to blow, eventually deciding that the best is the opposite direction. Blowing hair and ultra light winter jackets fluttering in the wind fly from Trenčín to Beckov like colorful kites, wanting to get this leg over with as soon as possible. I run too, trying not to think, not to count and not to suffer too much. I just think of all those who ran it at the end of the route, during the years when Letecká was run in reverse. They have my undying admiration. It's a tricky thing to run in such a way that one doesn't smash one's legs, and at the same time have that section over as soon as possible. The redemption is when the white shelter of the first K1 (Beckov at km 16) aid station peeks out from behind the bushes. I am there in an hour and a half from the start. Jakub informs me that he was expecting me half an hour ago. Hehe, funny, isn't he 😂 what am I, Priadka, or Oravec (two of the fastest Slovak runners), to run 16km in an hour? Oh, how I love this twisted humor 😆. I have some snack and off I go to make sure I finish that damn dam. My legs are getting more and more tired from that flat, my muscles are stiffening. I long for some hills to rest a bit! In Beckov we finally turn left, run through the streets and climb the first small swell. Everything suddenly aches, my legs feel heavy and hard, I feel exhausted. Oh no, not again at the 20th kilometer 🙈 I take a gel and my muscle tone normalizes. That was probably just that dam 😅 Over the hill, K2 Kálnica awaits in full armor, on the 23rd km. It's cheerful there, the music is blasting, the mood is uplifting, the tables are sagging under the goodies. Outside, the sun is shining. Simply idyllic.  
After Kálnica, we climb up the ski slope along some bike track and then we get to the ridge of Panská Javorina. There is a beautiful primeval forest here. The trail winds through moss-covered boulders. The trees have moss-covered roots and the bottoms of their stumps. It's incredibly windy here. The wind rumbles eerily in the bare tree tops and they creak and howl ominously. Good thing I'm not alone. For example, I alternate with two English-speaking dudes. One is from Ireland and the other from Wales. I ask them what brings them here. They say they like it here, they are excited about the race, the organization and our trailrunning community. And they say they will come to Big Bear's Ultra (now, after they have read this, they must come 😆). I'm happy to chat a bit. My mouth is paralyzed from the cold and it's harder to articulate, so my English sounds like it's from Abu Dhabi 😁. But no one seems to mind.   |
I catch up with Lucia, on the forest road and ask her how she is doing. She is returning to racing after maternity leave. I see a big smile on her face, so everything is fine. We go together for a while in a pleasant conversation. I admire her. A year and a half after giving a birth, I had no idea about ultra trails, I was happy to run twelve kilometers and the highlight of my trail running was jogging along the Váh embankment in Liptovský Hrádok.
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| Photo: Peter Sobek |
We swing over the next hill to K3 Bezovec (km 43). Julka and pizza are supposed to be here. Both are here and there is also a splash, an ultra party in full swing. Julka, together with Peta, Katka and other helpers are oscillating around us. Boxes with pizza are lying on the tables. I grab a slice with ham and cheese and enjoy the total delight. This pizza was a hit. It is said that many runners didn't get any, all the pizza was eaten within an hour. I'm glad that I was in the right place at the right time 😅 after leaving Bezovec, I text "I'm here" to my fanclub, which diligently encourage me, to let them know that I'm still here.
I don't remember much about the next 20km to Duchonka, but we certainly went through forests and meadows, up and down, on the road and on the trail. I catch up with Peter and after that we run together and pull each other all the way to the finish. At K4 Duchonka (63.km) we are greeted by, among others, the Leki poles guru Ferko Slezák (runners from all over Slovakia approach him to fix their broken Leki poles). He tells me that he is looking forward to my race recap. I tell him that so am I 😃 I go to the rest room and in the meantime, Feri prepares the dropbag for me. I also get a delicious vegetable soup with dumplings and sit down with Peto and the English guys. They gush over the dumplings in the soup, how amazing the aid stations are equipped and the service we runners get. We are probably the world leaders in this field. The soup was fantastic BTW and I'm having a double coffee and Nutella bread for a dessert. Yum. Because, going into another 23km hilly section on a full stomach is quite different than going into it on an empty stomach. Similar to:
After Duchonka, there is a 600m climb of about seven kilometres long back to the ridge of Panská Javorina. At first, it is steady and asphalted, then gradually rising and turning into a steep forest trail. It goes by smoothly in a pleasant conversation with Peto. Trying to run Indian-style wherever we can, we bypass a group of Spartans. The wind is picking up again, it's cold up there. On the top of Panská Javorina, there is a high observation tower. I suggest to Pete to climb up to the top (that twisted humor again 😂 we didn't climb it).
Shortly after that comes the incriminating tricky place where our present meets our past. If a you are not careful, you can get into a time loop and find yourself on K3 Bezovec (km 43) again, but probably without pizza and most likely without Julka. We were careful not to get pulled into a time loop and continue along the ridge towards Inovec. Timid views of a cloudy sunset open up to us. Soon it will be dark. When will we finally be at that bloody Inovec? A transmitter with a red light can be seen in the distance. Is that it? You have to swing over three hills to get to it. We are running. The wind is getting stronger, but at least it blows at our backs. It's getting louder and louder. I anxiously wait for the transmitter's red light to come closer, but it doesn't. Here and there it flashes ahead of us between the trees in the thickening darkness and disappears again. We put on our headlamps and keep running. The last climb before the summit, there is more mud and a dust of snow. The howling of the wind peaks, the squeaking of the metal structure and the trees wailing ravage my senses and disturb my inner peace. Let's get out of here quickly, to get to the leeward.
In the steep downhill, my operated thumb is howling and wailing (but only a little and quietly). Two blisters have already formed under it (the first one burst). I ignore it. It can be endured, though, I was afraid it would be much worse. My shins are exhausted as I try to compensate with the movement. I ignore it. Finally, we are at K5 Inovecká chata (86th km). There's Monika's husband Peto and two beautifully radiant gas heaters 😍 I report to Peto the state of my thumb and announce that Monika saved my Letecka 100 today. I am eternally grateful to her. I'm nauseous with hunger and forcefully bite into a salty bun, drink my tea, and refill the softlask. I have another brownie and an apple. It helped. After this short break, we let ourselves be spit out into the icy wind and continue on another stretch to the last checkpoint. I scan the route profile on my watch and see that another 400-meter hill is coming our way. Mentally, Peto and I set ourselves up for it, bite the bullet and silently, with the help of the autopilot, climb up. At the last aid station K6 after Ostrý vrch (95th km) I inform my fanclub that "I am still here and alive". We'll gather strength for the final 12km stretch, which should be a cool treat by now.
And so it was. Although the road through Brezina seems endless, we eventually find ourselves under Trenčiansky castle in a place already familiar to me (from yesterday). We run through the picturesque streets of the city center, through the underpass and there is the one last final kilometer. I look at my watch - after all, we could do it in under 17 hours! I say to Peto, let's go, let's get it under 17. We turn on our turbo and put on the ultra sprint (understand sprint from Wish) and hey, we are under the finish gate, happy that we are already under the finish gate 😀 time 16:53. Like, we probably would have put it under 17 hours even if we had walked that last kilometer. But 16:53, that's a pretty substantial difference than 16:59 😂 Plus, in the video from Ternínovka our approach to the finish line looks ultra stylish 😎. So we let the endorphins flood us, we receive congratulations, diplomas, fantastic lentil soup made by Jogošíci and a refreshing lukewarm shower. What more could we ask for.
It's alive in the Sports Center. Some runners are lying loose in the gym in their sleeping bags and dreaming sweet dreams, some are sitting, eating, drinking, sharing impressions, others are coming to the finish line to loud applause and cheering. I, after a short socialization, peek into my feather jacket and lay down on the gym floor. I don't have a sleeping bag or a mat, I didn't feel like messing around with them this time. The first night I slept like a queen in a guest house, the second totally punked out like a homeless on the floor 😄 Eventually, I move to a folding chair in the next room where the race check in took place yesterday. The volunteers cover me with a blanket and even give me the choice of brown or turquoise. I choose turquoise to match with my jacket and sneakers 😅. I fall into a sweet intermittent slumber, vaguely aware of what's going on around me. Monika appears. I thank her again and congratulate her on a nice performance. I'm happy she did well today and her stomach didn't bother her too much.
Today, records were broken in both the male and female categories, Martin Halász ran a beautiful time of 9:25. Vanda killed it with cosmic 11:38 and my girls Lenka and Zuzka arrived at the finish line in a wonderful 14:42, still managing to take pictures and shoot videos for Instagram. I took a pitifully few photos today by my standards 😅 and I made zero point zero point zero zero number of videos! But I have endless memories.
Oksana and I board the first train in the morning and go home. It was beautiful, we are full of impressions and adventures, big and small. Thank you to the organizers for a truly excellently prepared event (from sharing of the pre-race information, through the event check-in, beautiful route, marked in detail and equipped with the best spring weather, all the amazing aid stations, to the start / finish base camp), to all the volunteers for taking care of us as if we were their own , they read our minds, brought us the blue from the sky and fulfilled our wishes before we even expressed them 💗 You were all fantastic.
Thank you to everyone who cheered, encouraged, and kept their fingers crossed online and offline, from afar and up close 💗
With that, I'm done with winter ultras and I'm sticking to barbecues 😁
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