If in the last running season road races in my running calendar made up the bulk, then this running season the main emphasis had to be on trail races, but as for road races, then everything was sad. Of course, focusing more on trails dictated the realities of today, and since trails are not as massive and are held in sparsely populated areas as opposed to road races, trail races are more likely to start on a scheduled date.
Of course, it is interesting to run trails, but in four months they started to get bored and I wanted to visit some interesting city half marathon. Therefore, between the third and fourth stage of the "Kremen Trail League" decided to look for an interesting road half marathon. It didn't take long to look for a half marathon and I decided to choose Uzhhorod and the local half marathon "Uzhhorod Half Marathon".
Registration
It was possible to register for the half marathon "Uzhhorod Half Marathon" through the site athletic-events.com, where participants could choose one of two distances, namely the main distance of 21 kilometers (4 laps) or satellite distance - 10 kilometers (2 laps). The price of participation in the half marathon was 450 hryvnias.
The route of one circle "Uzhhorod Half Marathon" passed through the colorful streets of Uzhgorod and the embankment of the river Uzh.
Run
After registering for the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon", it's time to plan a trip to the Ukrainian city of Sakura. Uzhhorod is far from Kyiv and the road from Kyiv to it by train takes mostly from 12 to 16 hours and they arrive mainly between 9 and 14 o'clock in the afternoon, so I decided to go on another running trip on Friday night, which would be on Saturday morning. you could already enjoy a walk through the streets of Uzhgorod.
Saturday was mostly spent getting acquainted with the streets and the city embankment, in addition, a little walk along the route of the upcoming half marathon. In the afternoon, the distribution of starter packages for the participants of the half marathon began at Post Square. So between walks around the city, I decided to look there to pick up my starter pack.
As for the main purpose of the trip, namely the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon", it started at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning on the streets of Uzhgorod. To run the main distance - 21 kilometers was found by 145 participants. The organizers of the “Uzhhorod Half Marathon” prepared an interesting running trip through the city of Uzhhorod for the participants. The route of the half marathon turned out to be flat and the participants of the half marathon could run through the cozy streets of Maly and Velyky Galahov, Korzo and Voloshyna streets, Koryatovych Square, cross two bridges, namely the pedestrian and Tomasz Masaryk bridge, and of course run along the embankment. To run a half marathon you had to repeat the circle four times, as the distance of one circle was - 5.3 kilometers.
In addition, two food stations were waiting for the participants of the half marathon on each lap, where the participants could regain their strength with delicious fruit and water. The first food station was located near the pedestrian bridge, and the second was waiting for participants at the start of the new circle.
The start of the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon" took place in several waves, where participants first started from 01:00 to 01:30, and then gradually at 01:30 to 01:45, 01:45 to 02:00, and 02:00 to 03:00. Since for me “Uzhhorod Half Marathon” became the first road half marathon this year, I decided to choose the start of the group at 01: 45-02: 00.
Therefore, after the group of participants started at 01: 45- 02:00, my conquest of the next half marathon began. Although the route itself was flat but had one small feature, most of the streets of the city on which it passed were paved. Although it did not cause much discomfort, the route was pleased with the surrounding locations and landscapes that opened from the waterfront, which in turn distracted from the circular route of the half marathon.
The route was quite good, the first three miles were covered in 26 minutes, six miles were spent - 51 minutes, nine miles - 1 hour 18 minutes. So I slowly moved to the next finish, from time to time running to the food outlets to drink water.
I managed to cross the finish line 1 hour 50 minutes after the start of the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon". As for the first road half marathon this running season, the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon" turned out to be quite interesting and not bad.
Impression
"Uzhhorod Half Marathon" turned out to be quite well organized despite the modern realities, which only a week before the start began to release Transcarpathia. The route of the half marathon was completely blocked by third-party vehicles. At the turns, the participants were met by volunteers who showed the right direction. In addition, there was good support from the participants, especially in Koryatovych Square. And of course, the "Uzhhorod Half Marathon" left a lot of positive and interesting impressions of running, and at the same time reminded me that road races are sometimes held.
Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.
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