Marathon man out of spite

How have I become a marathon runner? I don’t know. Maybe by chance, maybe out of spite. Anyway, it started rather unpretentiously.

I quit smoking after twenty years and I suddenly felt the desire to run and do sports, so I accepted my neighbour’s invitation to go to the nearby city stadium. He used to practice that every evening, so I always had company. Three, and then four times a week, those five or six, and later ten laps became my habit and need. Just when I felt I could do more, I was invited to join the Hemofarm Running Team for the Istanbul Marathon, so I started preparing for a 15 km race. I went there, I managed to run those 15 km, and I fell in love with everything that such an event had to offer.

Only a few days after my return, the feelings and memories I brought from Turkey inspired me to take part in the Apatin half marathon (21 km) in mid-October, together with some acquaintances from my town who ran there in the previous two or three years. And I did it! I even thought I could have run faster!

On our return, there was talk about the Recycling Marathon in Novi Sad which was due in the beginning of December, and since the three of my by-then-already friends were about to run there, I also decided to apply and try it. They advised me to wait for the spring, to accumulate more kilometres on my tab, and this and that… I did not listen.

On a cold and windy day, I ran shoulder to shoulder with them, up and down along the Danube and I didn’t want to give up. And it did cross my mind hundreds of times. I had a feeling that every part of my body ‘called me’, even those parts I never before knew had existed in me. A pain here, a pain there, a pain on the side, cold, slippery surface, … but it was worth all that! The satisfaction that I felt when I was crossing the finish line, those feelings of power and exhaustion which were overpowering each other, the congratulations of other runners and the disbelief in my making that much of progress in such a short time, that warm – best ever, ginger tea I drank, the muscle pain during the massage… I will remember every detail as long as I am alive. And the beer on our return. Never tastier!

Since then, I have run about twenty more marathon races and about thirty half marathons – Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Šabac, Valjevo, Ljubljana, Sofia, Sombor, Subotica, Banja Luka, Ruma… and there is always the same question: what’s next?

That feeling of happiness, health, power, and strength, regular practice, and waiting for the new race, have become my way of life, and those acquaintances – Jocko, Dule, and Deki have become my friends.

Next, we are planning Skopje… because HAPPINESS is there to be cherished, HEALTH is there to be protected, and LIFE is there to be lived!

GO AHEAD at full throttle! 😊

Author: Darko Tošić, Technician, Hemofarm AD Disinfection and Manual Packaging Department

Source: Hemofarm Foundation - Marathon man out of spite (fondacijahemofarm.org.rs)