Tady je Manasovo

Last year in winter, when I went to boulder with friend I was changing clothes and the laugh from my friend forced me to realize that I’m kinda fat. My nickname Manas had immediately changed to Manas the Fat.

Because man is usually being priggish and cares what other talks about him (now I can see you smiling and saying “but I don’t care” – but what brands are you wearing? Isn’t it coincidence that my friends skateshop has really good revenue these days?) I’ve decided to do something.

So I promised myself that 90kg is too much (especially the 10kg bit around waist :-)). I’ve started to ride my bike again. But after a month I’ve crashed and I was out for a month – back to the start. So Sarka forced me to start running twice a week. That was the key! Also, because she likes to see me being wasted (not talking about alcohol now), she also signed me for the Velka Kunraticka race here in Prague. It’s a little bit hard run, with 3 really steep hills, can get you down easily.

Two weeks prior to the race I haven’t been running at all, also 2 months before I’ve crashed again on my bike and bruised ribs kinda prevented me from training. Week before I’ve decided to run at least a little bit, so I went with Sarka. She later complained that I ran too fast – racing ambitions, ahaaa! :-)

The race day has come. I’m not feeling well in the morning, feeling bit nervous but as much as before downhill race. Sarka is quite nervous, I’ve never seen her nervous that much. She’s forcing us to run immediately to warm up, to quickly changes clothes and stuff. Jeez!

Start is coming, blood pressure rising, sun is rising, whole world is spinning. 15 secs to start: Although I was on the toilet I feel I need to go there again. 10secs: I’m starting to sweat. 5secs: Oh my god! What am I doing here? START! Here we go, I set up tempo, mine road shoes are sliding like sleds on ice.

I want to jump over first mud bit but I hit exactly the deepest part. First creek, I do exactly the same – so one shoe is black, the other one ice cold. First hill, it’s easiest, you are not tired. Running up, passing 3 guys, looking good for the photo. Just a short part on the top and there is the first downhill. I’m behind one guy, he is a bit slow so I’m taking inner side in curve, holding tree like a gogo girl stick, doing twist on it and I’m in front of him. Two crosses over the creeks – hitting the middle, so shoes are clean but both completely wet.

WTF! The steepest hill is here. In 60m length you get 45 altitude meters. Looks like climbing level 2+. Thank god, there is a rope and I’m going up. Passing two other guys and one goes down after I grab the rope so when his shoes slid he couldn’t reach the rope I’ve just moved. Sorry man!

I’m on the top, I quickly start to run again but I feel that I should be training the uphill a bit more. Little bit straight passage, can see guys going to the final part running from against me. I envy them really loud. Second downhill is here – this one is a steep one. One guy did the slide down nonstop. Wow! I’m not that archmaster, so I’m running down slowly. But still, two slides, both about 3m long when I thought that I will go down. Guy behind me is not that lucky, ends eating dirt but gets up.

The last hill is here. It’s a coup de grace. I’m dead. Walking uphill but still! Passing 2 guys, one defeats me on the top. I have drought in my mouth so strong that I can barely swallow, I’m only wheezing. I cannot run, for a God’s sake. It is killing me … but I start to run slowly. Everything hurts and I’m thinking that I should give up. But the thinking about how friends will have a fun of me – that I’m so fat that I couldn’t finish it keeps me running. So I’m squeezing myself to the limit and keep running. Six guys pass me but they’re running that fast that I don’t care. My mind concentrates only on lifting left leg, breath in, lift right leg, breath out, lift left leg, breath …

Finally, there is the last downhill. I’m running as fast as my volleyball damaged ankles allows. I’m down on the road, the finish is near, I’m sprinting, passing one last guy and there the finish. Some guy is taking picture of me and I don’t have enough strength to at least look like to be intelligent. The sensor beeps and it’s over. I promise myself that I will never race this again. Or that I will at least take a look where I will run.

I’m checking the time and voila – I did it under 20 minutes, which was my goal. But I don’t have enough strength to enjoy it. For about 5 minutes I’m standing there, not able to move. Finally, I’m looking for others. Sarka did it in 20:28, 41st place in women, her father 16:02 (he’s year 1969) and me in 18:23, 727th place out of almost 3400.

We’re going home and surprisingly I realize that I will do it again next year and that I have to do it better.

Check out the track profile, click to enlarge it.

Tags: beh, Manas TL, race, run, Velka Kunraticka   Posted in Jen Tak, viewed 1645 times. Share on Facebook