UNDERGROUND ULTRARUNNING

It is raining again and the muddy trail gets soaked even more. My attention in a sharp focus on the tricky terrain rather than the charming scenery of the nature reserve Grybla where I am now in the middle of the race. Deep in the woods I don't care that the temperature descended close to the zero, but once I get to the open hilltops the wind bites me with frost. That's alright! Anyway, I should be more concerned about the broken lacing holes on my left shoe. The very first mental challenge of the day. My unfailing Hoka Mafate betrayed me badly while lacing them up tight, just before I got to the starting line. No matter what, my brains have already shifted to another diversions. I am keeping my fourth place on the course and I am resolved to push as such to the finish.     Hungry and hyped I entered for my first running contest of the 2024 year, ultraPUNKtrail Pyselsky kopecek of 81 km distance and 2 500 m elevation gain. The round course winds across the runnable hillocks of...

The start of the year was quite promising. I picked up on the established routine of a runner living in a big city, beating the pavements and roads in my neighbourhood, with some random chances to get out to the nearby woods from time to time. With the month of April came the left calf injury. Not a big issue, it seemed at its early stage. But the seemingly innocent calf tightness developed into a muscle inflammation and then into painful nuisance which sidelined me from a serious training for a couple of weeks. At odds with my preliminary plans, I toed the starting line of my first scheduled race, Valassky Hrb 55 km trail run, the last weekend of May not in a hundered-pro shape. The first 30 km went well, to my surprise. But the next, a bit more hilly part of the trail, played bad with my impaired fitness. I was humbly happy to clock the 17-minute-slower finish time than the year before and to grab the fourth place in my 45+ age category. Anyway, this was just a training race, ...