In the morning I went to the start package pickup point. I showed my passport and medical certificate, and the volunteer provided me with a backpack where I found a t-shirt, a participant bib number, and a few other things.

The day was destined. It was waiting for me around the corner. The start was at 6-28 a.m. for all distances. On the 28th of May 2016, in the morning, almost 400 people went out to challenge themselves and the steppe. The sun was shining in the cloudless sky, boding a serious heat test for everyone outside. The temperature was already running high. I was one of them crazily brave superhumans. The run started, and short-distance runners (those who signed up for 28 km) ran in front of everyone, speeding up from the first minutes. I was trying my best to keep within the first ten athletes during the entire distance. After the first 10 km in the steppe under the blazing hot sun you truly realize that the only source of support you can count on is feeding stations with water and fruits organized by volunteers.

Yellow, red and ash-gray colours and large open spaces of the steppe were beckoning me, inviting me further and further. With Joe Cocker’s blues in my headphones, I was covering one kilometer after another at my normal speed. I didn’t even notice I was getting closer to “Chertova Balka” – “Hell Hollow” – on the 20th kilometer of the distance. It was a very serious test for me: a descend first, then an extended sharp ascent. Then the last seven kilometers in a straight line: it felt as if my feet were moving forward by themselves, regardless of my will. I seemed to speed up effortlessly. I completed the distance and got a successful finisher’s medal. I could tell I had done well. I had managed to overcome myself and beat the distance. 28 kilometers was not only the finishing line but also the place where 56 kilometers runners turned around and started to run back. A few people fainted from sunstroke. The heat was terrible.

Those who finished their distance were wandering the desolate lakeshore quietly, reflecting. Nobody was talking to each other but there was still an invisible connection between us at that moment. The participants of the 56 km ultramarathon were reaching the 28 km check line, had a short break and continued the distance to get to the finishing line on time.

I wanted to escape the mess at the finishing line and walked off to the lakeshore. The buses were waiting for the last runner to take us back to the start. Time was floating by, unnoticed.

When I reached the lake I only found a steep cliff high above the water. I didn’t have the slightest desire to climb down. I sat on the cliff, took the finisher’s medal out and examined it closely. The 28 km distance was engraved on one side, and an eagle on the other side. I felt like I was able to see and watch his flight. The eagle was soaring in the sky, spreading his wings, moving along with the sizzling hot flows of air. He was hot. He was starving. He was keeping a sharp look-out, searching for prey, to survive in this lifeless steppe. What a paradoxical fight for one’s life! He didn’t know any other life since the day he was born. This was his freedom and he would have never changed it for a comfortable cage in a zoo where he would have been well fed every day.

My tiredness was disappearing. My pulse became normal again. The heat and the hot wind kept marching along the steppe, testing the ultramarathon runners to their limit.

I could just imagine how hard it was for those who had chosen the longer distance. These strong dignified people continued their victory march, overcoming the obstacles.

Another blast of hot dry wind suddenly brought a new sensation – somehow I felt a hidden strength in my body awakening. This flow of strength went through my body, and there was a moment when I became this flow myself. This energy flow was playing like an inexhaustible fountain of rising and falling energies. They were sparkling, gleaming, and mixing. I felt a stronger self-confidence. I could see endless opportunities to capture. I could see the new horizon. It was hard to reach, and that is why it was so alluring.

Meanwhile, the bus drivers announced its departure. We got on the buses and took our seats. The buses’ route was different from the running trail. We soon found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, in the desert steppe…

Suddenly we saw a runner who had lost his way. He had got distracted and hadn’t noticed the turn indicator. The bus stopped. Someone offered him to get on the bus and come back to the camp with us. He rejected flatly and only asked for water to refill his hydration pack. Later we heard he had still managed to complete the distance with a very good performance. He even won a medal place.

The bus was overheated, and many participants had a headache and felt suffocated. The driver had to stop the bus several times. We arrived at the start safe and sound after a two-hour drive along the steppe roads. The bus doors opened and we got off, to the cheers of the supporters and volunteers, like astronauts landing after a successful travel in outer space.

This is how the participants of the 4th ultramarathon 2016 created the event that has become a golden thread in the history of this remote and forgotten land…

In the evening I was enjoying the farewell sunset at the lake. In the morning the train station was overcrowded with athletes and guests. All of them were going to bring so many positive impressions and vivid memories back to their homes scattered around the planet. They would certainly come back here in a year. Having been here once, one remembers this place for a long time.

The Elton run was followed by many more runs in other cities of Russia. I took part in various types of runs with different distances. That surge of energy I had felt when sitting on the edge of the cliff alone with my thoughts was enough for all the following distances. I was sure I would come back there…