I haven’t raced in a long time, mainly because we have a lot of our own projects and few free weekends:)
But when I received the entry fee for the Chopok Skymarathon, I didn’t refuse and so on September 6, 2025 I stood at the start under Chopok in front of the Srdiečko hotel.
The starting gun was accompanied by thunder in the background and even though the storms were predicted for the afternoon, they arrived right in the morning. Within 30 minutes I was soaked to the bone and the conditions were even more difficult, slippery roots, wet stones, mud.. But at least it wasn’t hot.
After the initial climb to Kosodrevina, there was a traverse almost to the M.R. Štefánik hut and quite a few sections were runnable, from the hut there was a fairly long steep section down to the cave of dead bats, where it was quite slippery. I went relatively slowly and managed it without falling. There was a nice, quite runnable path back to Kosodrevina and so I ran as much as I could.
I ran the refreshment stop only with a refill of ionts and a long, really long climb to the Krížské sedlo awaited me. Here I started to feel that my strength was waning and there was a reason, almost 20km and I had eaten almost nothing.. mistake..
I mostly walked to the refreshment stop on Chopok, where I stuffed myself with a banana and a chocolate bar, replenished my fluids, and jumped over the Tatra granite to the Demänovský saddle, where the trail started to rise again. I already felt that today would be very difficult, because I had less strength than I would have liked, especially uphill.
The descent from Krúpov saddle was steep, rocky, muddy and strenuous, it took a lot of my strength, but the forest from Záver širokej doliny was beautifully foggy, mystical, covered in moss, I enjoyed it..
The last refreshment stop on Biela Púť and now it’s just a climb, I tried to replenish my energy, but I knew that it would be more walking than running.. It was quite easy up to Orlia Skala, I walked quite briskly. But up the slope? That completely turned me off and I could barely move from one foot to the other, my head was starting to hurt, my stomach was protesting… It wasn’t the performance of the year, but I didn’t give up, and I walked all the way to the finish line, I was the 6th woman at the finish line with a time of 7h 33min.
