Amsterdam Marathon 2025: learning lessons from each kilometer

Amsterdam marathon was the top running goal for 2025. If you want to be honest, the process starts long before the race. It is mostly mental, only after this you need to think about it in a physical way. “A marathon is a bit too far for a human being to run”, concluded Matt Fitzgerald…

Living & running with Haglund

How I found out about Haglund deformity. When you run more than 10 years, you make a lot of mistakes. I have done dozens myself, and the biggest, I guess, was to neglect the pain from my right Achile tendon for more than one year. The pain is not huge, apart from some certain moments,…

Băneasa Forest Run: both sides of the story, one conclusion

In November 2024, I’ve decided to participate again at Băneasa Forest Run, after a long pause. This time it was about the 11K race, which I have never attended before, but wanted to in 2022. It just didn’t happen, because of an injury. After some half-marathons in the past, in the famous Băneasa forest, finally…

Essentials: the feeling of failing to finish a half-marathon

11.65 kilometers. I stop my watch. The feeling is different. After more than 150 races of all sorts in which I’ve started in more than nine years, for the first time I call off one voluntarily. It is strange. I try to announce my DNF, but can’t find where I should do it. I am…

Running a personal best by accident: half-marathon in 1:28:40

Don’t consider this as an example, because it is not. I am preparing for a half-marathon personal best, so need to deliver some proper training. The thing is, that in one day, particularly 5th of March 2025, reality drifted to another path, without having anything planned. The plan was a longer tempo, of 11 –…

Jacob Kiplimo, of Uganda, new half-marathon world record: 56:42!

Jacob Kiplimo doesn’t come from nowhere, as he became the youngest athlete to represent Uganda at a Summer Olympics edition: Rio de Janeiro, 2016! 15 years old! Fast forward, nine years later, the guy from the country with the grey crowned crane on the flag, finished the Barcelona Half Marathon, on 16th of February 2025,…

2X2 Race – running on clouds

If there is one race I’ve participated at, in my almost one decade running “career”, I can always speak about in huge terms, that is, without any doubt, 2X2 Race. I’ve written a couple of times about my experiences from there, but I never truly expressed my real feelings experienced in 2024, when I’ve achieved…

Running early in the morning, the best thing: haha, what a joke!

Have you ever heard conventional wisdom from so-called healthy life style specialists – who usually don’t look anywhere near a healthy life style – saying that running early in the morning is somehow a blessing? That is the best idea, the best practice, ultimate habit? Well, yeah, I’ve heard also them a lot, and I…

Impressions from Cernica forest @ Cernica Running Trails 2024

I’ve never been to Cernica before, even though it is not very far from me. I found a perfect occasion with a new running competition, Cernica Running Trails. I knew that the organizer puts on the map top running events in Romania, such as Retezat Sky Race,  Azuga Trail Race, Timisoara 21K, Alba Iulia City…

Secret tips for running a super fast marathon

I am not even sure what a super fast marathon is. Let’s assume the benchmark is the world record, we cannot find any better: 2:00:35. But most likely you won’t be able to run a sub 2 hours marathon in any case, so you need to lower the expectations with two hours. Is that OK?…