5. Night marathon 2014. report

Planned or noth, the Nigth marathon became an important part of organizers’ lives. Each year we started earlier to prepare for the next and each year we raised the bar a bit further. I am not saying we were doing perfect job, but each of passed 5 events were well received and that might be the reason why this race grows this fast…

Takmičari na startu 5. Noćnog maratona

Preparing for start of the  5. Night marathon

Preparations fot the Fifth started even before the 4. Night marathon was held. Anyway, some things had to be improved – the most important being listed:

  • Race center got wider and better lit
  • Marathon have got an honorable lap in the end
  • Runners got high quality T-Shirts.
  • Finisher medals are molded
  • Registrations were collected on trka.rs
  • We introduced the timing system
  • For the first time we organized running school competition

Each of these points was an issue for itself, whose implementation took months at a time.

While we were busy organizing the event, we were surprised with floods in Croatia, BiH and Serbia. Everything stopped for a moment, priorities changed fast and our crew concentrated on helping those in need. Nobody thought of the event, just how can we help.

Trčim u ponoć za pomoć

Running at midnight to help out

After the worst passed, watter withdrew, people were taken care of, animals in shelters we returned to our initial mission, but we had to readjust our goals. We made necessary cuts so we decided to redirect food from our sponsors to the impacted schools (thanks to Simin and BioLand) to Svilajnac, and money 100rsd from each entry fee for the animal shelter.

Some runners who couldn’t come gave their entry fees as a help too!

It was not easy to cope with the cuts but we managed somehow.

11 dečaka i devojčica iz Dečijeg sela u Sremskoj kamenici se takmičilo uz podršku ARK Fruška gora

11 boys and girls from the Dečije selo (childrens willage) in Sremska Kamenica competed with support of ARK Fruška gora

5. Night marathon had with 960 starters 188 runners more than last year, which is 24% growth. There were 886 finishers. We had runners from 23 countries and 174 cities!

We are happy to be the hosts for many running schools from the region.

It is a big challenge to organize the best event, because all our people want to run 🙂 However, thanks to the friends, families and around 170 volunteers we did it. The crew knows iths thing already.

Prijave su opet bile na visini zadatka

Registrations were very efficient

Race center started at 17h, but we had some runner from far away even earlier. Schools and clubs came as groups, but there were plenty of the others too. Cameras were flashing all over the place and young and healthy people were simply shining 🙂

Crveni krst se brinuo za zdravlje takmičara

First aid

Before dark the youngest had their competition.

Dečije takmičenje na 5. Noćnom maratonu

Na startu minimaratona

Start of the minimarathon

Before we knew it, it was already 20:30 and minimarathon started! Smiling crowd of around 200 souls hured ahead with brave boys leading the way.The pros won the race but everyone enjoyed their medals on the finish line.

Ognjen Stojanović rutinski pobeđuje na minimaratonu

Ognjen Stojanović won the minimarathon

Serbia is basketball nation. That doesn’t exclude runners stretching around.

People were preparing for the main start. Each in their own way. Night madness 🙂

However, we have to be responsible to our health, so please do the medical test before running any race! We are happy there were no major incidents on the 5. Night marathon.

Zagrevanje pred glavni događaj - 21km i 42km

Heating up for 21km i 42km

After the countdown runners hurled over the start line while people were cheering from all sides.

Start i reka ljudi koji se ne boje mraka :)

People who are not scared of the dark 🙂

It is hard to split the runner and organizer in one person. However, I overcame desire to sleep and enjoyed the ride.

Prijateljska i nasmejana lica na sve strane

Friendly faces all over

While waiting for the dawn with vegan Ananda pasta, we were all happy and tired. We did it again!

Krug na stadionu na početku i na kraju trke je bio novina

One lap after start and one before finish was a new thing

After we welcomed the last runner, we started the less known part of the job – cleaning up, leave the city clean as it was. Again the good crew comes handy! Who is tired, who wants to sleep?! Att 9:00 everything is gone, as there was never a huge event.

Veronika Jurišić iz Zagreba već tradicionalno sa lakoćom se penje na postolje u Novom Sadu

Veronika Jurišić from Zagreb for the second time the first

Some new crew is playing basketball on he same court, and we are going to take some rest before starting everything again… 🙂

Another thanks for our partners:

Prizes:

Results

Photos

Winner of the 5. Night marathon

Minimarathon – women:

  1. Aleksandra Marinkov 23:15.78
  2. Katarina Pohlod 23:42.03
  3. Dragana Dokmanović 24.14.92

5nm_pob_z6

Minimarathon – men:

  1. Ognjen Stojanović 18:28.77
  2. Živan Milošević 19:06.69
  3. Damir Stojanov 20:10.77

5nm_pob_m6

Halfmarathon – women:

  1. Radmila Đurović Raguž 1:37:02.14
  2. Jamanta Šafranj 1:38.23.89
  3. Dragana Špehar 1:38:50.90

5nm_pob_z21

Halfmarathon – men:

  1. Ivan Miškeljin 1:15:31.83
  2. Josip Major 1:17:26.85
  3. Mladen Minić 1:19:33.60

5nm_pob_3m21

Marathon – women:

  1. Veronika Jurišić 3:16:41.89
  2. Tanja Stojanovski 3:42:20.46
  3. Marina Nikolić 4:30:54.68

5nm_pob_z42

Marathon – men:

  1. Uglješa Nikolić 2:57:34.10
  2. Andrija Đorđević 3:02:47.11
  3. Veljko Popović 3:08:01.12

5nm_pob_m42

I would like to thank everybody once again for making the 5. Night marathon possible!