The Fruskogorski Marathon was held on April 27, starting at Popovica. At this race, five competition trails were scored for ITRU, in addition to the standard mountain trails.
I signed up for this year’s Fruskogorski Marathon, a 42 km race, but due to an injury, I was not able to run it. For this reason, I switched to the 22.7 km course because I thought I could do it even though I was not trained. It meant a lot to me that Petar wanted to go with me and support me. It meant to me that I had a pacer for the uphill climb so that I could give my all. Also, I was not alone on the track, although I liked it otherwise.
The transport to the Popovica was from the Sloboda Bridge in Novi Sad. There were a lot of people at the start, and I could hardly find a place to leave things. The second surprise came when I realized that the start for competitors had not been moved. Next to me, I saw people who didn’t have a number on their shirts, but only those cards. It’s far from the fact that I have anything against mountaineers or walkers. The fact is that we paid a large entry fee. At least they should have made an earlier start for competitors.
Race start
As everyone started at 9:00 a.m., one can guess what chaos there would be in the first part of the race course. Race weather day was otherwise fantastic. It was only important to me that there was no mud. We enjoyed the trail only after about 7 km. In the beginning, uphill, we had to go around a group of school kids who were not educated on how hikers should behave. The teacher didn’t control them. I still remember how many times we needed to tell school kids to go in one line. All of this only raised the pressure and heart rate. I only felt mentally relaxed when we passed them and caught up with a group of mountaineers coming from another place. While we were passing a group of mountaineers, we clearly noticed a different and fine culture, friendliness, and dedication to enjoying nature.
When we finished the race, I saw that I had gone faster in the first part. It’s not surprising that I got tired at the beginning.
Middle of the race
The second part, near Hopovo and to the finish line, was beautiful, with birds chirping in the forest. We were only overtaken by runners from other long trails. Petar support meant a lot to me, and again, the second part of the trail was really relaxed. The trail poles again proved to be extremely good practice.
The good thing is that the SI cards from our sport were used for the race, which is more practical for verifying the checkpoints. They should have marked or highlighted the places for checking checkpoints. It is not easy to see control with a prism among a crowd of people. Refreshments were modest but useful.
Before the finish line, we went around the groups again. Everything went quite quickly because we were running fast downhill.
Impression of the Fruskogorski Marathon
The impression after the completed race of the Fruskogorski Marathon is not entirely positive. I am satisfied with my time and placement, which I achieved thanks to Peter’s support and my persistence. The organization of the race had flaws from the very start. People complained that during the race, they did not clearly notice where the control points were. This race will remain in my nice memories because I crossed it with Petar. Due to the bad impression of the organization, I am not sure that I will register again.
Finally, I have muscle inflammation again, which I haven’t had in the last two years. It was all worth it because I always willingly chose a forest course instead of a concrete race. As Petar says, this “light” race was an ideal training for repeated strength training.
