Another Ultra dimension with high-altitude climbing ... Malofatranska Stóvka


What to think when you are standing at a crossroads and one of its directions leads your eyes to 
terrifyingly high peaks. The first thought is that the peaks are cool, but slightly frightening. The second
 thought is very different from the first one - o fuck.
That's what I thought when I saw a part of the alpine massif in Terchowa. After having the starting
 number and passing the obligatory equipment control, I saw a map of mountain trails on the wall,
 which was hanging right next to the sports hall in the local sports centre. One of the peaks has pro-
bably the same name as one of the peaks that will be on the route. It unlocks the phone and compa-
res it with a gang saw.
Uh, and yet. Kasprowy Wierch has only 200m more than the highest peak on this route. The ave-
rage height of peaks to run is the height of Śnieżka in Poland. So, at the beginning, you will need to 
get five times comparable height to Śnieżka, and that's already at a distance of fifty kilometers.
(screenshot from Lucus app)
...first 50 km of route...

The evening passes quietly but, as always, there is some stress. It is caused by thoughts of total 
elevation, which is 6700m without one meter, and chains. They would not be so scary if not for a pho-
to in the internet, which shows where they occur. But about this in a few moments....
But God has decided. It's time for even harder training, because not without a reason four months 
ago, when browsing the facebook portal, eyesight came across the name "Malofatranska Stóvka" and
its parameters. So he will submit to fate, because now, when I am here, I have to turn back? No. As 
always, he does not promise himself anything.

My pre-start evenings do not abound in partying, because like every competitor who is aware of 
what will happen, I go to bed early. In the morning, I am complaining to myself. Monika prepares for 
breakfast quickly, and I ......not here anymore.
These are the moments you are no longer in control of before the start. You have to give in to it 
completely, because whether you want it or not, it absorbs you as love and your resistance is 
superfluous.

"It's useful to me, it's not. I'll take it maybe because there is a repackaging, but it may come in 
handy faster. - I'm talking to myself. You cannot deceive the organism and consciousness. I was 
supposed to wear a jacket at the start, but each of the competitors has only a short T-shirt from the 
top of the dress.

 (photo by Monika Hyska)
...before start...
At the start, the "hundred" competitors look very few. After two kilometers everything is already 
evaporating and the applied sunscreen on the face starts to flow down like used oil from a frying 
pan. Sweat from the face has no outlet and everything flows down the neck on the back. So it started. 
I was defending myself for a while so as not to use sticks yet, but unfortunately I have to. I was only 
aware of the fact that there wouldn't be any mud on the top, which would certainly make this ultra-
marathon much more difficult. However, there are other difficulties. The descent is very dry. Mixed 
sand with pebbles, gravel, makes the slide very simple, into which I fell. I finish such a three-meter 
descent with contact with the ground.

You are lying down, but you have to get up quickly, because you can hear the crowd coming from 
above. Breakfast was definitely too weak, because I consciously reach for sesame. It will be hard 
and we haven't reached the first point (checkpoint), which is located at the eighth kilometer. There 
is no need for coffee here. At times he is guided by thought - just don't look down, because just mo-
ving along the rocky, hardened ridge, despite its still low height, requires a lot of attention. This is 
how Little Fatra greets you - stone, high, with long jungle runs, from which you run down sharply, 
you run literally a few meters, so far in high grass, to climb back up the mountain sharply, but lite-
rally sharply. Initially with a slope - it is heavier than the approach to Czantoria in Poland. It is perhaps
 comparable to Szczebel in Poland, but with a few more approaches in a few moments.

I already thought that we had a point on the route, which is next to the cross (on the above photo) - 
a dream (smile). Here everything starts all over again, only a little bit harder. It's good that the sun 
hasn't risen well yet. During the run I make a large, forced swallow of water.

Some luck without a stop, I'm going up that hill. A few stop, but this is no way for me. This fugitive, 
however, is heavier than the previous one. That one was rich only in sand with stones. Here, as if 
there is no trail at all. Broken branches, large boulders, water, mud, mud and manage to make it 
even more fun, before the mentioned checkpoint (about 8 km) still a wide stream without any po-
ssibility of safe passage to the other side - and go through.

For the first time I felt something I had never had to deal with before. Two people from the staff 
are standing in front of me. One of them writes down the number, the other puts my GPS on my mo-
bile phone and after a while I hear "you can".  - I felt strange.

Whoa! Whoa! If this is what the route will look like all the time, you have to push more calories 
into yourself. I let my body adjust my breathing and legs for a while. A long, enough, piece of 
asphalt road and a recurrence and a very long climb, but not so sharp, ended in a surprise. Here 
Monika greets me with a smile and I am completely surprised.

I drink a lot of liquid here, which is an isotonic administered probably from good will.

 Activate high concentration at another stage...

I liked the isotonic very much here, which I drank a lot. On the one hand, we have a little bit 
lighter now, but are you sure? A lot of tourists are already on the route and they are slowing down 
everything. Overtaking tourists is quite a feat.

 (photo by google images)
...some of the approaches where it was easier to walk the slalom along the edge of the stream...
They block and the clock ticks. How to avoid a tourist, when all the time we have a common trail 
abounding in unstable, humid, rocky ground. The only option is to deviate from this dangerous gro-
und to more dangerous and overtake. Sometimes, very much says deep breathing, which was 
heard by the person in front. That's how energy behaves, not saying anything, and hitting with sticks 
is a request for overtaking. You gain so many calories and seconds that you don't have to hear 
"you can't" at the next checkpoint.

Besides, we have here metal ladders or otherwise metal walkways with metal railings only on 
one side next to the waterfall. The problem here is the metal stairs themselves, whose construction 
did not allow to run in. It was necessary to take every step with special attention. Each step was wet 
from the falling water. It actually consisted of a small angle bracket, which served as a step. Hold 
the sticks in one hand, hold the railing with the other hand and look carefully where you put your 
foot, or you will fall off the ladder.
  (internet photo - google images)
...one of the many metal ladders on the route...

As long as the stream is nearby, it is worth to wet the buff and drink strongly icy water at the 
same time. I still see a few times the possibility of overtaking a few tourists and I can not hesitate. 
You have to use it. One wrong step and going sideways down is guaranteed, to a rocky stream.

Something ends with something to start....

The ladders are over. We go out onto the space. You can see on the left side a very high rock 
and people barely visible on it and a thought - no. He watches other competitors to know where to 
run. There are no route signs here. The only signs are the colours of the trails and the map issued 
by the organizer. Local competitors can read the area more efficiently. You can see that many of 
them know the route by heart. The phone stays in the backpack. However, the rock mentioned abo-
ve was not part of the race. After another part of the red trail, we climb up another hill. Heavy, deep 
breaths can be heard again. One of the players lets me through, but I answer her gesture, 'Relax'. 
Everyone is calm, taking one step more, we are getting higher and closer to the finish line.

We're starting to leave the protective area of the forest. Why is it protective? I have felt the stre-
ngth of the sun several times already. A ridge that is not protected by anything. The sun touches 
me from all sides and the climbing of the end is not visible. Hard but sure steps finally led to a high 
ridge. I look to the side and here space and cliffs. I still have a bit of a hill ahead of me and seeing 
in front of me how others climb even higher, I already know that I need to drink water and slim down 
my rucksack for another sesame. In this episode often the sticks are already superfluous. You have 
to grab the steady with your hands. One move aside and a scratch is possible. A tourist informs me 
with his finger that I have to turn back and head right to the right. I breathed a little, because what 
was in front of me did not look pleasant.

 The calories burn at a triple rate...

Yes. I saw a picture that I remember the photos. I stand in front of the top and next to it a narrow 
passage and in the wall belaying rods. Get it over with. It helps a lot to calm oneself down, not to 
look into the side, to concentrate on what is under one's feet.

  (internet photo - google images)
...the mentioned passage at Velké Rozsutec...

I remember the words of a tourist who just showed me the way. He also showed our checkpoint 
in the distance downstairs. To get there in time, you need to speed up a bit, but on this descent, for 
a few moments you can literally not. The whole route is besieged by tourists. I don't risk it, I stick to 
the chains, which helps to go down safely. Very steep is the descent and dangerous.

  (photo of raceshots.cz)
...part of the descent from Velké Rozsutec...

I want to take pictures of what's behind my back, but I'll do it when I get to the point. The psyche 
is more stable when around a confluence, so steeply steeped, there is greenery, so there are no 
cliffs. Here you can already run down the slalom. Sometimes it slides down, sometimes I manage 
to take long steps. I have already got used to it.

  (internet photo - google images)
...a part of the confluence in the form of a slalom - this is where the stairs in the episode...

I run as fast as I can to the visible man with the card. I didn't hear 'you can't'. I breathed. 
I watched now eating a slice of bread with chocolate on what was behind me. This is behind me. 
Velky Rozsutec' is already history.

The next level of the unknown...

           Having filled up the water supply, calorific supply and giving the lungs a moment, I run the trail
 into the unknown, just like other competitors. What awaits me now? It's more gentle here. On 
'Stoh'-u I've revived a little bit and I'm taking a souvenir photo.

(photo of Matthew Hyska)
...the view of Velky Rozsutec from Stoh-a...


The route does not allow you to rest your head. Concentration while walking at the deserter is 
high again. You can feel your thighs hard, oh, hard. In addition, the sun 'throws in its own'. As before. 
The fugitive, moment after moment on the horizontal and upwards, it will be all the time.

After some five kilometers of very long runs, he asks the runner, outside the competition, in which 
direction to go now. Here everyone knows the route of these competitions. He is pointing to me on the
 left side of the trail and in the distance you can see the roof and the big siege around him.

Checkpoint - he says and ran.

This episode seemed straightforward. The difficulty was the slope, because I ran along the side 
of the mountain, like in Trans Gran Canaria, remembering the hundredth kilometre of the mountain.

Sorry, sorry - I hear a voice in the back.

I was also overtaken by a runner from the same distance. If she ran so fast, it must mean something
. I also rush as fast as I can in my legs and I don't pay attention to protruding roots, stones, as if they 
were too small obstacles.

Luckily, I reached the name of a small camp, where I could replenish my supplies. They serve 
Chinese soup here, which I also ask for.

Eat something- says the compatriot to me.
Do you know the route?- I'll ask.
We ran the 50th here a year ago. Here on the fifty there is 4500m of elevation - is responding.

What thought did I have? An elevation comparable to 'Hell of Czantoria' on an even shorter dista-
nce and in the harsh, merciless sunshine. I drank a whole liter of sparkling water here. I ate what is 
rich - bread with a nutella and I felt that I was ready. Two more hills remained and half the distance 
behind me.

           Somehow more gentle in these mountains now. Maybe it's a habit.
Where now? - at the crossroads asks the tourist.
There, everything ok, except elevation' - laughs one of the competitors when I ask him if I'm 
running in the right direction.

I'm reaching for an OSHEE bar. You have to eat small bites all the time. I didn't know that I would 
like them so much, although initially there was a problem with skipping the sweetness. At a very 
fast pace I manage to leave the distance behind. This way I catch up with the player, who earlier 
overtook me.

That's you again - seeing me and I didn't even know he was going to catch up with someone.
What tells you your track? - because I'm curious to know how many miles to halfway there are 
left.
Abot 1k - to put it briefly, at least I know how much longer this run in the forest will last.

On the left side you can see the street and on the front side you can see the roof. There are still 
eight kilometres left to halfway point and this is very good news. I drink about one litre of water 
again, suck the juice out of pieces of orange and.....

 Wanting the worst to happen behind my back....

Suddenly the phone rings.

I'm waiting for you at the finish line, Monika says.
Okay, I still have a piece of it - when I finish the call, I run all the time with the sawmill in the phone in front of me.

I was based on the older version of the route so I bypassed the checkpoint in Lipovec and ran 
additional, unnecessarily eight kilometers. I learned that the limit was extended by one hour and 
thirty minutes. I drank two soluble coffees here. I ate another Chinese soup, which was hard to 
pass through the throat. I left in the car a very sweaty shirt and gloves, which will not be needed 
anymore. I also gave up some food (bars), which I know I won't move. It's always a few decagrams 
less.

The time has come to take a breath.....

I asked the man how the second part looks like about now. To sum up, we come to the conclu-
sion that now it's downhill and now under the cover of night, but there's no point in "opening cha-
mpagne yet".  Now, with the phone in his hand, he climbed a nine-hundred-metre climb. There are 
no competitors so the route is not visible. I can't believe my eyes. Kuna comes from me. He is not 
afraid. But in a moment he is running away. On the right side there is a man lying and looks as if he 
actually died - a corpse. He is sleeping. But a part of the powerful light wakes him up.
You get up or stay'- I ask.
He gets up, but slowly,- he says.

The two of us will be all the more so as I don't know these areas completely. The joy, however, 
does not last long, because the momentary partner is a bit dragging on a bit and it doesn't suit me. 
However, he decides, in moments still waiting for him, that having a phone call and the route swi-
tched on, I run.

Unknown forest and darkness...

Forest, unknown forest, on the display of the phone I can see the differences in mountain altitu-
de. Two hundred and two hundred, one thousand and three hundred. After a rocky, spicy uphill 
stretch I reach the trail, which is called 'European long distance path E3 - part of Slovakia'.

  (discharge from the application of a piece of sawmill)
...nothing but night, sky and an unknown forest around the corner...

Night, cold, but the jacket has long been pulled down and hidden in the backpack and in front 
of me a few more meters to replenish what is not a liquid, eat something. I circulate a large transmi-
tting station and at the point, under a tent, I wrap myself in a blanket for a while. I eat another soup 
and also use hot flavoured tea - as many as four glasses. I try two flavours of non-alcoholic beer, 
but I associate them with oranges. I can't swallow it.

Passing someone in a sleeping bag on the way, I run slowly forward. I'd rather leave these centi-
metres, meters, than go and think about time. The route was very soft. However, once you have to 
overcome the elevations, which are no longer large. The difference between slope and uphill 
stretches is about one hundred metres. Once down, once up. You can hear the birds. Morning aura. 
I often run through the so-called wasps points and here I lose the route. I took the liberty of a few mi-
nutes of slack and it cost me an extra three kilometres. When you are aware of the time, that you do 
not have a lot of time and the route in the forest is completely unmarked, you have to run with your 
phone in your hand. You know that the time limit is increased, but the thing is not to be minute to mi-
nute, because you may miss time on the next one.

  At 5:40 a.m. he reports to the next tent. I am already drinking the third soluble coffee. Black tea 
also tastes good and chlen with bacon is even better. Six o'clock is the clock. Not wanting to 
"anchor" here, with thanks, I leave the tent.

 An hour of time ten kilometers after a difficult terrain...  

Two very difficult approaches, which are seven hundred metres high, are already behind us. 
The slope on them, reaching up to forty degrees, was no longer surprising. Now you have to run. 
Under the cover of trees, because the sun is already rising, I am breaking through a difficult terrain. 
The trail is overgrown. He reads from his phone the distance to the impossible hourly limit between 
tents.

The tent is set up in the pit. The data from my GPS bracelet was read and I hear
'A little... - a man smiles when he checks my GPS.  
'You will run right now to the end, but since now you have nothing except that you have - I hear.
'How much? - I ask about kilometers.
16 km. Do you continue? - I can't answer that question any other way.
Yes - briefly and concisely.
Perfecto. I will call and give your number. Good look.

I drank some water here. I bit the banana and wanted to finish. Sixteen kilometers, I think, is the 
distance you run calmly, during the "Silesian training", but with a bit of finish and in this area, the 
approach to this number is different.

 The consciousness left behind by the meters behind...

Still, I know more or less how many kilometers are left. I don't know if the athlete who is ahead of 
me will finish the competition, but I want to. I'm ahead of him. On the penultimate approaches, 
which are not small, but do not impress even because of their height, and yet at times (thousand 
two hundred, thousand three hundred - hard), I reach another character from my distance. Honestly,
 I don't want to chase. I feel like I'm going to make it in time. Climbing with the rider I caught up with 
on the summit, we see "Klak", the last mountain left on the track. It doesn't look straight. Literally 
climbing it is already a bit hard, but one thing that motivates it is that it is the last approach.

(photo of Monica Hyska)
...just before the finish line...
 It's the end, the happy end...

   I don't want to take pictures anymore. I'm very happy that we're running away, but we're not sho-
wing it. We don't have the strength for it, but internally everything is happy. Actually, we are going 
down in a fast march. You can already hear the traffic on the street. I forgot that I still have a Coke in 
my backpack and offers my temporary partner what I have. The sun is burning at the last meters. 
Everything inside is letting go. I don't even want to take off the Polish flag, which I have on the back 
of my backpack. However, we can already see the emblem 'Slovak Ultra Trail'.  We calmly reach the 
last point, called the finish line, and give our GPS bracelets back. He congratulates his "temporary 
partner" on finishing the competition with a handshake and the organizer congratulates us on getting 
there.

  (photo of Matthew Hyska)
...the end of the route...

How good a beer it is! Watermelons don't taste good anymore. I won't touch the oranges for a 
week. The cola will not be drunk for a long time either. Think - eat a decent dinner. After using the 
shower I still want to run but on the meadow to the restaurant where together with Monika we order 
something from the card.

  (photo of Monica Hyska)
...just outside the restaurant...

Great WOW reaches me - the distance of one hundred is not equal to one hundred. Fifty percent
 of the competitors did not finish this distance. I managed to do it. No distance can be underestimated
 and this is confirmed all the time. How much you can stand when you know that you will only rest at 
the finish line. What will you say to yourself when the sun will lead you to a state when irrigation with 
water, isotonic, coke is not enough, when all the bars that you liked the most will remain at certain 
moments elements that you will not want to move anymore. What a strong person sometimes has 
the will, when he or she encounters his or her weaknesses and has to put all this aside, not to think 
about it, to look in his or her head for thoughts that will wing. Apparently, this state must be loved 
despite the fact that it is so dull.

 
(photo of the entire route)
...a thracian drop...

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