Back to Azuga! Trail running is not something matching very good my style and my training approach, but regardless, as years passed by I have developed a certain affinity for this hobby, and attended many events in the Romanian mountains, at most, in spite my proper training for this is nearly zero. In fact, my momentum during all these races is sustained, 90% or even more, by my huge volumes – 3.000+ km each year for a guy like me is a lot – therefore no real expectations. However, in most of the moments, I am tailoring my participation to certain events in a way that it can match my running qualities, in a way in which I can transpose my decent flat speed on hills. If the terrain is technical, that doesn’t work. So then, if I want to obtain decent “scores”, I need to avoid as much as possible these kind of races. Like for example 2X2. But I couldn’t stand aside, and, in 2024, as told, I have (almost) accomplished it. The “almost” here doesn’t mean any failure, though.
Maraton Piatra Craiului, still in my mind
Maraton Piatra Craiului was much more different, but it had some significant portions that made me draw a line and state that, at least for now, three consecutive participations, with regressive results, is enough. Three weeks forward from this event, Azuga Trail Race was about to happen, and I have said to me that if my finish time will follow the trend from MPC – as already in 2023 I was slower comparing to 2022 – it means my peak was achieved, and then I can stay on my flat surface. But at ATR, the things are a bit more different, because there is near to zero technical terrain. Sure, there are some significant climbs, Sorica being the crown jewel, but that is not a problem for me, in essence. I can sustain very good this kind of challenges, because of my significant running volumes. The race is made out of two loops. A long one, that coincides with the half-marathon, with some good climbs, but nothing out of the ordinary, and a shorter eight kilometers loop, with famous Sorica at is beginning.
What is Sorica of Azuga?
To understand better what this is, it is a ski slide of around 1.5 kilometers and 500 meters of ascent, with an estimate angle “of attack” measured at 33º. I am not sure if you understand what this means, but picture the triangles you’ve made at mathematics and consider the equivalent angle. Or think that for a Borg test, the maximum inclination of the treadmill is at 20º. Yes, it is brutal. Usually, I enjoy it at the beginning, and at the end, but it helped me in each of the three years participating to pass 20+ contenders until the end, and to not be passed by anybody else – this happens because I am slower than I would wish on the big loop, but that is a separate story. Now, the only think I am thinking of is the air temperature and how the sun will shine. I am not at all friend with the heat when running, but I guess 80% of the runners aren’t. So this would be, at any moment, a very thin excuse. It influenced my result in 2023, but who really cares?
Azuga came with a… t-shirt revelation
The list of excuses we can expose is so big, maybe greater than the total count of sand grains on Earth – just not to say the total galaxies in the Universe – so then it is very unimportant the final outcome, generically speaking. For me, though, a better result than the good one, 4 hours 22 minutes, for the 29.5 kilometers with 1900 meters of ascent from 2022, was almost mandatory, and I was almost sure I can get that because the weather announced was rather chilly, even though clouds were not expected. On top of that, I’ve slept in Azuga, not like in 2023, when I come from Bucharest, run, and left. This can help, of course. As well, there was no mud on the trail – some frozen soil, I will find out later – so this provides an even better boost for my morale. I am not sure why, but with this race I have inclined for a luck t-shirt. Because even if I am using a couple of t-shirts I like regularly in my race, I cannot mention one specifically.
Faster than 4:15? Maybe four hours? Not that easy!
This time, exactly like the Bucharest 2023 edition, when I’ve managed my first time to go under 40 minutes for 10K, I’ve put on my adidas Runners Budapest – “Faster than” t-shirt. Long story short, because the race had not too new things I could share, my final time was 4:14:08, so then eight minutes improving of my previous PB at Azuga Trail Race. The weather conditions, my training, the lack of mud, the fact that it was my eight trail race in 2024 – and also the shortest – paid off. I think, in the given circumstances this is the best I can be on a trail run. Maybe if I would have, at a point in life, the opportunity to easily train more with ascent, I can slightly go below 4 hours or something like that for this. But for the time being, I am enjoying my result. Well, checking the ranking, I can state once more, that the weather didn’t help only me. Because my rank was 102, comparing to 49 in 2022 and 69 in 2023.
I was in good shape at Azuga, but so were 101 before me!
Even if the number of participants grew, I am pretty sure the colder weather played the biggest part. And to give the best example is that the winner, Andrei Preda, cut off more than 15 minutes year over year! If this doesn’t mean anything, then I don’t know what does! Going back to my new lucky t-shirt, I can say that it helps me get fast results on all surfaces. Of course, running a 10K under 40 minutes, in Romania, is a bigger deal than what I’ve achieved in Azuga Trail Race, but for me, personally, that really is an achievement. And I can state it is, maybe, the trail race well I feel I touched biggest part of my potential. It is not something that will go in history, not even for my own history, but it is a moment I am cherishing, and feeling grateful for, so I want to expose that public and open. Because, in the end, this is what remains after a good run, or an equivalent achievement in our life: the memories that, from time to time, should fill our heart with gratitude.
