Warsaw running festival 2005
REPORT
Let's live it once more...
 Warsaw Running Festival has become history and so has 27th Warsaw Marathon. For most it was an unforgettable event - Warsaw saw a variety of running events with more than 3 thousand runners in total. Three national records and two marathon records were broken. Add to it concerts, expo and other attractions. Everyone could find its favourite activity.
Threadmill run for starters
Warsaw Running Festival began on Friday, September 16, at 8:30 a.m. This when Marek Szuster started his attempt to break the world record in 12-hour threadmill run. During 12 hours of his race Marek covered the distance of 131.3 K. He missed the worled record by just 7 K, still his result is the Polish and German national records. The last 60 minutes he ran together with people gathered to take place in the supper run 1 kilometer long. There were lots of famous athletes in the running field: including Olympic champions Kamila Skolimowska and Szymon Ziółkowski.
 Saturday relays
Day 2 of the Festival was team competitions. In the morning schools relays were competing, while at3:30 p.m. the marathon relay (ekiden) set off. 73 teams of 6 took part and two national records were set both for men and women. The winning teams were led by: Rafał Wójcik (placed 16th in 2005 world championships in marathon) and Justyna B±k (former world record holder for steeple).
 Marathon for the final
The pinnacle of the three days was Warsaw Marathon. The gunshot was heard at 9 a.m. Sharp. Almost 18 hundret runners were in the field and they ran a brand new course that weaved through the city's most picteresque places and monuments. The first to reach the finish line were: Grzegorz Gajdus of Poland who clocked 2 hrs 14 min and 50 sec and Nina Kolyaseva of Russia at 2 hrs 34 min and 53 sec. Both set new marathon records. There were nearly 17 hundret race finishers - almost twoce as much as last year. 15 aid stations were placed along the course and runners were offered water, drinks, fruit and massive fan support there. The course was full of kids from 42 best-cheering schools from across the country. Now, we are getting ready for Warsaw Running Festical 2006. Are you?
Michał Drelich
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