Calderglen Harriers Represented in Poland!

Blonia Park – view towards the castle

1st of August, I visited my ‘old’ city Krakow located in southern Poland. The place where I lived before I moved to Scotland.  I had never run in Poland before and I was very excited about doing it there. Since there is a summer in full swing, not many races are available in these months.  Luckily, I discovered that they have parkrun, an event that is well known in the UK and across the World.

After checking all the organisers’ info, I headed down to Krakow’s Blonia Park, where the run took place. The course there is mostly flat and similar to Strathclyde parkrun.
To my surprise, there was no sign of any usual parkrun set up or volunteers….just too many confusions for my first time there!

Wisla Krakow stadium (my beloved team) in background

After a chat with local runners, I calmed down and the core team arrived shortly to set up the start of the run. Later on, I found out that they were involved in the organisation and participation in a 12hrs Night Ultra Distance Run, which had finished an hour before the start of parkrun.

The day was sunny and dry and, despite the early hours (9:00am), the heat that was coming from the Sun already made the air quite warm. I set off and quickly manage to get my 5k pace, with the aim to increase it towards the finish. I tried to enjoy my run as much as possible, because the Blonia Park is very familiar to me from my studying at university.

Group photo session after the event

 On the podium in my Calderglen Harriers top (no prizes though)

As I planned, I managed to speed up towards the finish and end up with time just a few seconds out of my overall PB, gained a week earlier at ‘Round the Arran’ race. 23:40 is my overall best parkrun’s time (so far) and I am happy that I achieved it in Krakow.

Dariusz