Spring Meeting - "Półmaraton Wiązowski"

When planning my running calendar for 2019, I just couldn't miss this half marathon. In 2019, he had his 39th start (impressive for a half marathon, right?), And he has all 5 stars on run-log.com - so I got curious about him. It was easy to reach - it takes place in the suburbs of Warsaw, which was the decisive impetus to meet spring at the classic distance in one circle, running Półmaraton Wiązowski.

Registration

Półmaraton Wiązowski Race Registration is available at wiazownapolmaraton.pl. Participation fee - 50 PLN (with early registration) and 70 PLN (one month before the start). Main distances of 5 and 21 km and children's races. The 21 km route is an asphalt circle that covers the surrounding villages. The start and finish line is located in Wjongzow at the local school. Startups can only be picked up on the day of the event. The start itself is quite late - at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, and the children's races start in the morning. My distance has two time limits - 2 hours 30 minutes and 3 hours, the last starts half an hour before the first one.

The road to the starting town

This time I decided to get to Warsaw by plane. Departure from Kiev was at 9 o'clock in the morning, and arrival in an hour and a half. After passing customs control and at half past 11, he went to his hostel, located in the eastern suburb of Warsaw, in the small town of Jozefow. The map showed that it is about 20 km away - a great opportunity to get to know the city better. In addition, I planned to visit the Empik bookstore on my way to buy something interesting. As a result, I spent half an hour there and bought the book "Ultra Dobiegniesz dalej niz myslisz". Next stop is my hostel. The road to it took me about 8 hours and 36 km, which was quite a good warm-up before running.

The next day, on Sunday, I took a little stroll around the suburbs and headed to the starting town. We were distant 7 km of forest trails. And as I always did not look for easy ways, so I decided that the next warm-up would not be unnecessary. After about an hour and a half I was on the spot and received my starter pack (T-shirt, starter number, buff, backpack and promotional items).

Running

The half marathon started at 12, and after 15 minutes the 5 km races began. In the morning, youth and children's starts were held, so it was crowded from the very beginning. At the 2:30 hour limit, most participants (about two thousand) started and about one hundred runners half an hour earlier where the limit was 3 hours. The track closed at 2.30pm. To be honest, remembering my walks in Warsaw and its environs, I had considerable doubts that I would manage and meet the 2 and a half hour limit; the total mileage was 60 km during the days spent in Warsaw, and the feet made themselves known. In addition, this year is one of the first races I participated in. This was the reason why I started thirty minutes earlier to make it run quieter.

So, I started at 11:30, which is pretty good. First, there were few participants, and secondly, they ran rather small. I adjusted to a few Poles and started running. The route was well marked, with volunteers showing the road at every turn. The Polish National Guard was on the way and on the turns, so we knew exactly where it was not necessary to return. Every 3 km there were points of degradation, and for 10 km there was a turn - there they erected a stage for musical support, where local bands performed. As the route lay in the surrounding villages, support was everywhere, with Polish fans being rather lively. Running was very easy - for the first 7 miles I spent 1 hour.

Finish

After 9 miles, my feet started asking me to slow down, so I had to slow down a bit until they stopped listening to me at all. The result is 1 hour 59 minutes. As for the first half marathon of the year, this is a great result In addition to the medal and the positive impressions, at the finish I received a delicious porridge at the school gym to recover a bit. There I took the 730 bus that took me to Kwatery Głównej. And then the airport and the road home.

Features of a half marathon

The highlight of the event is the Półmaraton Wiązowski Half Marathon is the first leg of the Grand Prix Traktu Brzeskiego race series, which also includes another half marathon, 2 10 km races and 1 15 km race. All races are paying attention to something of their own, and the most attractive, as it seemed to me, is the second half marathon in late August, whose name is Bieg Siedleckiego Jacka.