Runs in Warsaw

Runs in Warsaw

Marathon competitions in Poland have been organized regularly since 1924. Yet initially marathons were open only for professionals, no events for amateur runners were organized at the time. The situation changed at the end of the 1970s.

Not only for professionals

Two people came up with the idea of organizing marathons for amateurs at the end of the 1970s: the long distance Polish runners coach and first director of the Marathon - Zbigniew Zaremba - and the Editor in Chief of the ITD magazine - the originator of the whole undertaking - Józef Węgrzyn. They took care of the organizational side of the event, i.e. convincing the party authorities that gathering two thousand people in one place and letting them run in shorts across the town would not end up with riots. The Peace Marathon was originally supposed to be held in 1978, however it was only a year later that they all managed to make it happen.

Run for Health

The main promoter of the idea of taking part in the Marathon was Tomasz Hopfer - in his time an outstanding runner (the champion of Poland in the 4 x 400 relay race), and then already a well known Polish Television journalist. Hopfer with his example showed to viewers all over Poland what it meant to practise sport. Older runners remember his action "Run for Health" until today. Thanks to the efforts of Tomasz Hopfer the Peace Marathon became an event which was the goal of each amateur runner.

From Peace Marathon to Warsaw Runners Festival

On 30 September 1979 at the start line there were over 2000 runners from all over Poland. They began the marathon of 42 kilometres and 195 metres from the Tenth Anniversary Stadium. Both professionals and amateurs took part in it. The Peace Marathon was the first open marathon run in Poland. That debut was very impressive. The times achieved by the two first competitors on the finish line were over a minute and a half shorter then the record of Poland at the time which belonged to Jerzy Gros.

The follow-up counter measurement of the route showed though that the distance they covered was at least 500 meters shorter. The record was not ratified, yet nobody questioned the huge number of the participants. A year later at the start line of the Second Peace Marathon there stood 2.5 thousand runners. 2295 of them reached the finish and the fastest time for a woman - Anna Bełtowska - became the first woman record of Poland ever.
The same years in Berlin there were 363 runners, and the second edition of the New York Marathon in 1971 was completed by 245 persons, including 5 women.

The Follow Up

The Peace Marathon had to face the political-economic crisis of the decade. Also Tomasz Hopfer's death contributed to the lower numbers of participants in the coming years. In 1981
there were still 2015 marathon runners who completed the distance, but this was the last marathon in Poland until 2005 - it was completed by over 2 thousand runners. From the beginning of the 1990s the name Peace Marathon was replaced by Warsaw Marathon. In 2002 Warsaw Marathon was going to be cancelled due to some organizational problems. Then it was the runners themselves who took over and reanimated the idea. Joining their efforts, they made it happen. The so-called "partyzancki"(do-it-your-self) (let's-do-it-our-selves-marathon) marathon in 2002 was completed by 307 people. A year later there were 1070 competitors and the last, 27th Warsaw Marathon was completed by 1689 runners from all over the world. In 2005 the final route of the marathon was traced (it had been undergoing some modifications throughout the previous years). In the same year Warsaw Marathon was for the first time held as part of the Warsaw Runners Festival. It was the first event of the kind in Poland. During the 3-day runners' holiday the event hosted around 5 thousand people - both competitors and supporters. They were not only from Poland. In the main event of the festival, the 27th Warsaw Marathon, about 1800 competitors took part in the run - from 5 continents and over 30 countries.

Our goal in 2008 year is to have more than 3000 runners at start line.

Read Warsaw Marathon Archives

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