The Ekiden relay teams consist of six people, each covering a set distance: the first person runs for  7.125 km, the next two – 10 km, and the last three – 5 km each. The whole distance equals the marathon distance. Each runner runs with a baton, which he or she hands in to the following participant at the end of the covered distance. In addition to our captain Tomek, Aude was represented by: Daniel, our most experienced and fastest runner, five times marathoner and ten times half-marathoner (prior to joining our team he ran several kilometers as a member of a different team, just to warm up), intermediate runners Agnieszka, Magda and Michał, and Ula – as she called herself “the weakest link,” although it would be more fair to call her a beginner 🙂

“I began my adventure with running when we decided to take part in the relay. Before my first workouts I talked a lot to Daniel, who is more experienced in the discipline and who advised me to “choose a route, so that you know how your body reacts to such a distance.” I got up early in the morning three times a week to hit the trail: I mixed running with marching. After some time I was able to run the whole distance, even though I would prefer to be marching all the way! I’m not afraid to take part in the relay – I thought I could always turn to marching if I didn’t manage to run the whole thing,” Ula told us an hour before the start.

The second round of the Ekiden relay took part on a rainy 10th of May. The scenery of Szczęśliwicki Park was beautiful, but the conditions were not encouraging… for anyone but runners! “It could rain even more. Running in the sun is so much worse,” commented our team leader.

Since this was our first relay, we felt a little disoriented at the start, including our captain (“I’m nervous. I’ve got 12 minutes left to the start and I don’t know where the starting-line is”) and other team members (“Which way do we run?”). But that was nothing compared to the stress of those who didn’t have a chance to meet other members of their teams before the start and had to look for the same color of shirt to pass the baton at the end of the distance 😉

The first medal – plus information about the route – was brought by Tomek: “At least three ascents that you can “feel”, one longer descend, followed by a hill, so it’s little help. But I’m happy with my 6 minutes per kilometer! Consecutive participants need to position well on the route – the runner may have difficulty spotting them in that crowd!”
As he was telling all this, Agnieszka was already covering her 10 km part, then the same distance was covered by Daniel in 40 minutes, and the last three 5K loops belonged to Magda, Ula and Michał.

We took the 173rd place among the second round teams, covering the entire distance in 3h 40 min. This is well for the first time, but we’re looking to trim off some time next year 😉

The next day our e-mail boxes were hit by another spontaneous email – this time from one of our team members: “Thank you for a very positive and energizing experience – I wish we could repeat that today ;-)”

Sports achievements are always better when watched than read about, so view our gallery!

PS. Thanks, Tomek! Looking forward to more such emails! 😉