I know that what I have faced was called The Speed Project Do It Yourself, the virtual version of the great 550 kilometers run between LA and Vegas, but my reality is no virtual stuff at all. I mean, I felt for months the live pain in my right knee after the… wonderful experience. And I’ve enjoyed every step of it. Even those ran through the thick night, around Herastrau Park orrr the even better stretches at the sunrise in the neighborhood of Bucharest. All I know, in the interval of 29 hours and 51 minutes, was that I need to follow a strict process, to help the adidas Runners Team in which I was one of the members, to get a best record as possible. My focus is sharp, need to don’t lose any of my concentration. And here I go, once Alex or Cornelia tap my hand. One more 1.5 kilometer, as fast as I can, but not too fast, in order to wear off and let the boys and girls down.

Running on the railway

At this point the morning is very young, new born I could say, and I start running along the lazy railway, lightened by some sun raises of an early September cool day. The team with the camera is taking their car in front of me and start filming. I don’t realize very well what’s happening, ’cause my focus is on the road an don the black van where I need to give the relay to one of my two colleagues from the micro team – we are six, but split in two teams of three. All done, free for around 10 minutes and here we go again. The temperature rises, we have around 52 kilometers in total and a well deserved three hours sleep will follow. Halfway, my thought flies in the bed’s direction. It’s normal, but I keep on running. Don’t want to accelerate too much, since I we have some third of the competitional time left and I need to be in the best shape possible.

The Speed Project, the real experience

For the moment I feel brand new, completed the morning shift of The Speed Project, the Bucharest version, and I am ready to take my bed from the trailer parked near Steam Coffee. I manage to sleep only 1.5 straight hours, but I can say it was a great nap and unexpectedly refreshing. My first ever relay run is working perfect and I leave the experience at its best. September 2021 is a month I will forever remember, that’s for sure and it is not the only memory about this wonderful event I’m going to share here. In fact there are quite a few. The way I am living it – even when I am writing down these words exceed my initial expectation. The Speed Project Do It Yourself is an experience which any runner should enjoy! 🙂 For the moment, the sunrise is the beginning of my journey. Even though not the chronological begin, we can say, without any hesitation, it is a spiritual start!