Trail Running Croatia

The sweet sixteen RIS race

The 16 kilometres with 716 meters of elevation race on Risnjak is the shorter partner of the 30-kilometre RISNJAK race in the National Park Risnjak. Some would say that makes it less attractive to runners, but size isn’t always everything.

With regard to technical details of the race, what do you get to experience? The course path takes you through the National Park Risnjak, up to Schlosser’s hut (just below Risnjak peak) which is the highest point in the race. For those who take a day longer to stay, I recommend to revisit the race trail and climb Risnjak peak for a great view of the national park (and totally worth it).

The race is in July, so expect it to be hot. It starts and ends in Crni lug (and there are no showers). You will run the course mostly in the shade of tall trees, which will provide plenty of protection from the unwanted sun during the very sunny summer day. My advice is to use sunscreen protection, as the song says. The trail does require a level of respect in terms of the terrain since there are plenty of loose rocks on the trail and people have fallen and injured themselves (The Croatian mountain rescue service number is 112, just in case). There is only one refreshment point at the 10-kilometre mark, and should be sufficient for all those who sweat a lot during races. Please, be so kind and take a water bottle with you (some didn’t). Why, you ask. Because wetness is the essence of beauty (remember Derek? :-).

But the real question, why attend this race and why the short version?

Well, the Kvarner trails races have something intimate about them, the number of participants is limited, the runners are all friendly, the locations and trails are chosen so that runners get to experience the area where you run, to understand the place you visited and whatever else gets you to say yes, these races have it.

I usually prefer to take the longer race, to make it last and to see more, but this time I got saddled with the shorter distance and did not regret it the hour or the day or the week after. You can run the race with the best runners or you can stay back and enjoy the trail. The short trail does not provide much in terms of grand views (one notable exception), but it does let you enjoy the untouched forest, if you can stop looking down (and I recommend you do).

For those who come to the race the first time, I believe, it will always stay with you as a fond memory.

And if you fail to believe me on anything else about the race, please remember to carry some water and use protection.

The start

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Lim Bay Challenge – Route choice analysis

Hi. Let me try something new and show you my route choice analysis from Lim Bay Challenge, an adventure run (or trekking race) where you are free to choose your own path between the Check points (CPs). You’ll see a basemap (that is rather old but has some new features manually drawn by organizer), our route choice (in red), route choices of some other competitors and some satellite photos… I ran (or walked) the whole race with Monika Kovaljesko. We were both orienteering, but it didn’t go that well, as you’ll see… 😊

First CP was close and it was an obvious route choice how to get there so our tracks are almost identical. Our route is shown in red. P.S. There are some races where there are multiple route choices to first CP so we start running in opposite direction. 😊

From CP1 to CP2 we had to notice that there’s a bridge over fast road (which was under a fence). You can see how the fast road is manually drawn on basemap and that it’s a bit off to right, but that wasn’t a problem.

After CP2 we decided to take our chance and try to navigate over open meadows (white on map) and get to CP3. You can see that this CP was not that easy to find, a lot of different route choices, mistakes, dead ends and coming to CP from both directions. 😊 Our track is still red.

The problem was that we tried to navigate based on vegetation which is not possible on such old map. Satellite photos show completely different setup of vegetation. We were pretty much lost and just wondering in west direction, hoping to find something that we’ll recognize from map.

15min mistake – not that bad after all.

It would be great that our mistakes stopped there, but they didn’t. It wasn’t a good day for orienteering. 😊 On map a route choice looked pretty straight-forward. Attack point was a small pond just east of control (we’ve never found a pond).

Again, trying to navigate based on vegetation, but the reality was nothing as a map. We found a good path that is not on a map and made false assumptions. Lost, wondering around, getting back, finding a stone quarry in the middle of nothing and then our CP. Uff…

30min mistake

Already demotivated with our progress (or lack of it) we continued towards CP5. Very nice trail and easy navigation (Yaay) and we are at our next CP and refreshment point. Great. It took us almost 2 hours for 10km of the course.

Oh, we were not done with mistakes for that day. The description of the CP said it was a tree near the lake on a NE side. We decided to approach the CP from that side but got blocked with dense vegetation with thorns. Ah well, what’s few minutes when you have hours to spare…

Finally, one good decision and approach to CP7. Although we decided to took longer route (and walk on road a bit) it proved to be easier approach with less navigation dilemmas than for the rest of the runners. And we climbed the right hill from first try! 😉

We wanted to approach CP8 directly from north, over a meadow (white on map) but it turned out to be dense forest (dark green on satellite photo) so we continued and took longer and safer route. No problems there.

P.S. At this point of the race, we are mostly walking…

When you walk, you have more time to read a map, look at terrain and make decisions, so we had no problem finding CP9. We had luck deciding to approach it from east, because the CP was placed more in that direction than marked on the map.

We continued our walk to CP10. No brainers there.

Although I didn’t like Monika’s idea to approach next CP from farther SE side, it turned out to be just fine. The idea was to avoid dotted trails and small fields as much as we can! 😊

A direct line to finish 😊 All in all, I had fun.

It was a true adventure run. I was a bit upset about the map, but the map is same for everyone. We should have concluded earlier not to navigate based on vegetation and to take safer/recommended route choices and we would have been sooner in the finish line. 😊

Nevertheless, we still had time to jump in sea and enjoy the rest of the day drinking coffee, beer, eating ice-cream, all that summer stuff… 😊

Brtonigla Adventure Trek – so adventurous

One runner told me this is the race he never misses. He attended the first race organised in 2011, and since then he has been coming every year. Then another runner told me a similar story. What else could I do but come and see for myself what it’s all about. Last year I came for the 1^st time and competed in the Challenger category. It was a blast, a beautiful track with diverse terrain and landscapes, interesting control points, good orienteering. This year, I decided I had to see more, so my choice was Ultra.

The Ultra category comprised 42 km and an altitude of 900m, in ideal conditions, as we will see shortly. It had 1 refreshment point at 32 km and included a mini urban orienteering in Buje, Istrian town known as the “sentinel of Istria” as it is perched on a hilltop located 10 km inland from the Adriatic Sea.

Coming with four of my trekking buddies, we decided to make it a one-day adventure. We started from Zagreb at 4am and before 7am we were registered for the race and set for a coffee in charming Brtonigla.

Mysteriously, it was announced that the Ultra and Challenger categories will start in a small Istrian village near the Slovenian border. Three days before the race, we found out that the village is called Kučibreg (in Italian: Cucibreg), which, on a nice day, offers a splendid vista from the Gulf of Trieste all the way to the Alps. We were transferred to the village and started on chronometer, each trekker every 15 seconds.

Just before the start in Kučibreg

After my starting number came Jeka’s, so the game started pretty intensely for me trying to catch up with her, as she is one of the fastest trekkers in Croatia. After a very short time and a lot of lost breath, I decided to slow down, look again at the map and follow my path.

Running to CP1

I followed the chosen path to CP1 but went south, more to the south than village Butari, which should have been my stopping point for going east to find the CP1 which was the tree near the hunting platform. There I met my friends with whom I came; Marijo, Tajana and Zvonči (with the exception of Shpiro, who was already way ahead of us). We diverged shortly afterwards due to different paths chosen. I chose the further way which I thought would keep me on the safe side and after 7,37 km from the start, I found the CP1. OK, this one’s off the table, ‘only’ 17 CPs to go. 🙂 It was funny ‘cos I like to play with numbers and of course I multiplied 7,37 by 18 CPs and got more than 130 km (this is based on the assumption that the distance from each CP is the same, which is not the case). Ooh la la, this is going to be a very interesting day. 🙂

CP2 – Tiny tree on the clay dune (Photo by Vedran Berkovic)

CP3 – Inside the tree in front of St. Mary’s Church

As I twisted my ankle on the 4^th kilometre of the race, I decided to play it safe and pick the road for a while in order to calm it a bit. Therefore, from CP3 to CP4 I went along the road (even though I otherwise avoid it). My ankle felt better and I felt more secure stepping on that leg. Getting closer to CP4, I turned again to the unmarked track and twisted the same ankle again. This time it hurt much more. I started walking slowly but it didn’t look good and I was thinking what to do with the rest of the race. Again, I ran into my friends Tajči, Zvonči and Marijo with Vođa and Renata, and Zvonči gave me a bandage for my ankle and a painkiller. I decided to slowly go further and see how it goes. I had to promise them I’d call them if I wasn’t feeling OK, and finally they took off. This is my old injury and I knew what to expect. The bandage helped a lot and I continued.

Now, it was time for a special treat: CP5. I flirted with Her, a lot. I came close to Her from one side, then another, then another, we played like this for a long, long time. One would expect that I would’ve learned to choose safer paths by now, but some mistakes in life I just like to repeat. 🙂 So, I have chosen not to approach it directly from the south where there was a track that led directly to CP, but I rather turned earlier to southeast following different tracks which led me to some others, and in a blink of an eye, tracks just kept popping up from everywhere.

While getting to know the surroundings of CP5, I ran into Irena, Sanda and Vlatko, and we continued the race together. We walked a bit, ran a bit, sang a bit, discussed the route, scattered in different directions, many times unsuccessfully tried to cross the streams keeping our feet dry, we ate, we breathed in the silence; in a word, we totally enjoyed this journey.

Along the way

Streams marked this race… as did the thorns

At times I had a feeling like being in a Snow White fairy-tale, where trees seemed to be alive and trying to grab me with their thorny branches.

One of the following controls was on a wooden fence inside the Momjan castle. I was wondering who would allow 50 muddy trekkers to barge into the castle, but then I saw a tower and castle ruins. A disturbing moment occurred when we realised that we were on the other hill, divided from the castle by a narrow, but deep ravine. Fortunately, there were steps and a track leading down and to the castle.

Momjan castle

Inside the Momjan castle

The most amazing control point was ahead of us: we had to go down a steep slope into the stream bed with the help of a cable, cross the stream below the great waterfall and climb up with the help of a cable on to the other side of the bank.

Mountain rescue service was there to help us safely cross the stream below the waterfall

The perforator was located in the cave southwest from the crossing point at the end of the cable climbing point.

Inside the cave

Somewhere in the middle of the competition, we realised that our race will finish on CP15 because we won’t make it within the time limit and we’ll have to be transferred by the organizer to the finish line. That is what happened afterwards, for me after 8 hours, 41.5 km and elevation of 1.150m. All in all, I realised that the Ultra category, although ultrafun, differs from the Challenger not only in terms of length, but also in the level of the necessary orienteering skills. Much to learn, you still have, Ivana.

I like to round off my visits to Istria by stopping at Agrotourism Wine Dešković; the food is good, but their malmsey and muscat are not to miss. As this was a one-day adventure, we didn’t have the time to fill up our wine stock, but we left with one more reason to come back very soon.

For the end, I have to say that I love Istrian Trekking Cup, which Brtonigla Adventure Trek is part of, for many reasons, but specially for treasuring the core values of trekking, beginning with their slogan: „Trekking, not trail. Trekking!“ to the distribution of maps just before the start, starting on chronometer and allowing only the use of good old paper map and compass. And if you want to play it, respect this sport. And if you don’t want to explore, orienteer, lose and find yourself again in the woods, Croatia offers many beautiful trail races where your path is marked and you just have to run and enjoy the freedom that nature gives you.

But if we’re trekking and you find me lost, please don’t show me our location on the GPS trying to help me find the way. 🙂 Being lost is part of the game. It’s what makes it so interesting so don’t take that away from me. Anyway, how else would you find your way, unless you lose it first? I know that I will find it, sooner or later. And so will you.

Races in the neighbourhood

Hi, we have a new feature on the web. It’s not anything big. We decided to add another thing to a list of things that we promote: races in the neighbourhood. If you would like to promote your race on our website and the race is in the Croatian neighbourhood (I don’t have a formula how far it can be, let’s just stick to neighbor countries…) contact us.

Our first offer to all of you who will be near is La corsa della bora (English: The Bora wind run, Croatian: Utrka bure). It’s a nice technical course and you can choose between two distances: 53km and 21km. The date is 06 Jan 2016 and you can find more information on official web site (English, Croatian, Slovenian).

So let’s say that you make this New Year’s resolution: “I will run a 50k this year”. You can fulfill it by the end of the week!! 🙂

There are plenty of more races in Slovenia (e.g. 100 Ultra Trail Vipava Valley) or Bosnia (e.g. Jahorina Trail) that could be interesting for anyone visiting or living in Croatia so we’ll try to keep you informed about what’s going on in the neighborhood…

P.S. The last big feature update was interactive map with races and trails so if you missed that one, check it out here. It’s also accessible by that green button in top right corner. It’s on every page.

Risnjak Trail 2015

Routes for Risnjak Trail have been confirmed. They are only slightly changed and will be 16.14 km and 29.5 km long.

I wanted to say that you can read in my last year’s review how well the race was organised and how beautiful the trail was, but I’ve just realized that I haven’t written the review… 🙁 Instead, I am posting some pictures that I took.

Registrations will open on February 10th. There’s a limited number of places, so don’t wait for the last moment…