I should have never been able to do it, to finish the 2X2 Race. Maybe this is exactly the reason for which I wanted so badly to complete this event. 2X2 Race is maybe the running competition that defines me the most, as a human being. For a guy scared of heights, with basic flat training on the plains of Bucharest, with other trail running events leveraged as rehearsal, the 2X2 Race finish was something which never should come true. In 2022 I have failed badly. Couldn’t make it in due time to Moldoveanu Peak. After that, this became an obsession.
“You will never make it!”
In 2024 it was the next go, I had a plan. Written on paper, with clear milestones I needed to follow while cruising at 2,000+ meters. On a mountain edge, with depleted volumes of oxygen, comparing my normal. The initial benchmarks put on the piece of paper, kept carefully at hand, slipped more and more. Only a few minutes remain projected towards Negoiu Peak. The last check point before the finish. “You will never make it!” “There are at least 2.5 hours to the top, at this pace”. “You don’t stand any chance!” These were most of the words heard when climbing to the top.
Mistakes can produce pain, and you need to let it be
Only one guy tells me I can make it. The most important is that another guy, myself like a robot, went ahead with a clear mission: to make it to the check point. I never intended to let go my objective. Seven minutes short, I finally achieve the goal: 10 hours and 53 minutes. In a race where roughly 40% don’t make the cut-offs, and drop from the rankings, I am about to make the final list. It is a victory, even if the way back is long. I don’t care anymore. I am relaxing, letting the blisters from my soles take toll of my shoeing mistake.
15 hours, outside the final cut-off. But inside my goal
The last seven guys behind me manage to overpass at the end; the last descent was slow as fuck, I lost more minutes. At the finish line, the “curtain” has fallen already. There is no actual finish line anymore. It is basically “sealed”. I am the last man standing in seconds before the finish of the 15th hour. For me, the importance of that was negligible. I missed the final cut off by one hour, but I still made it where I wanted to. The goal was to have the track completed, and so it happened. Having 14 hours or 15 it was never of importance. Sure, it is best to finish quicker in such an event. The energy reserves, though, went flowing where they should for my well-being, not for the futile standings.
Over and over again about my 2X2 Race finish
I pushed as hard as possible at the beginning, because I knew I won’t be able to push at all in the second part. I will write about this at least once every year. Over and over. It is an achievement, the race I am most proud of, and most grateful for. It is something that I should have never achieved, as said. This is not a proof of athletic ability, or something of the sort. It remains an evidence of how staying laser beam focus can take you to places you maybe never expected to reach. It is a proof that many can be done with consistency and will.
People will tell you it is impossible, you just need to believe
My 2X2 Race finish from 2024 has nothing to do with running, or with a physical achievement. It has much more to do with the power of believing in yourself, in the fact that the only thing that maters for every individual is what he genuinely thinks he is capable of. I was told, during my journey, I can’t make it, but the words didn’t move any inch of my confidence. This is how I behave in life, and so should every human being do. It can change many things, usually in the best way possible.
2X2 Race finish, the true life lesson!
I don’t know if I will tackle 2X2 Race again, but I am not excluding it. For sure, though, I will tackle many aspects of my life exactly like I have approached those 15 hours of one of the most brutal sky running events in Europe. I have a compass, and I am not talking only about the moral one, but the one which shows the performance direction. It provides the mental key to many challenges, especially when it comes to crack virtual codes at your mind level, regardless if it is about a professional puzzle, or another door you need to open smoothly during your existence.
