Ultrarunner's notes

 The criminal returns to the crime scene… …but only for a smaller act of mischief this time — 64 km / 4100 m+. This race carries the nickname “Najtrudniejszy bieg w Polsce” — “The hardest race in Poland.” Whether that’s actually true, I don’t know. But one thing is certain: while running the 64 km course this year, I genuinely could not comprehend how I had managed to survive the 177 km version last year. And yet, barely two days after the race, I already found myself thinking it might be a good idea to come back one day… for the full 240 km madness. Whether that happens in this lifetime remains to be seen. I’m curious myself.   I won’t go into detail about the course itself — everything was thoroughly covered in last year’s report . But the weather and conditions this time were exactly my favorite kind: sunshine, warmth, dry trails (although some sections clearly preserve eternal mud…), and that gorgeous green-yellow-blue beauty of May. A change in the start/finish location ...

 Celebrating spring with a winter run for a good thing     Anyone who knows me knows that winter ultras and I don’t get along too well. I’m a lizard — I need to bask on warm rocks, with sunburned skin and heat on my back. I once ran a winter hundred — Letecká 100 — but back then a wild spring was raging, so I basically dodged all winter conditions 🤷‍♀️. So when I heard about the 10th annual ALS run adding a brand-new 65 km route, it didn’t even tempt me. Late March can be tricky — mostly cold — and I wasn’t about to risk trudging through snowdrifts on a ridge, slipping down icy slopes of Kozí Kameň, or shivering for endless hours. The past three years, we’ve helped at aid stations in Batizovce or Spišská Teplica, and I assumed this year would be the no different. Then one day, I got a message from Mirko Hollý telling me I should go ahead and sign up and not to worry about the aid station - they’d handle it. I politely declined at first, but well… the idea was planted...