I can say that the experience I got in this race was the best result I had ever had. I mean, first of all, psychological experience. Once more I learned that I should count only on myself and nobody else. I didn’t even know where I had derived all my strength from but I had managed to heat and melt my character to turn into a strongest alloy. Just one race like this is able to make a person rise higher and reach a new level of being and new worldview. I’m grateful to Lake Elton for giving me this opportunity to test myself. I’m grateful for this adventure.

I completed the distance for 9 hours and 40 minutes. The maximum limit was 14 hours. It meant that the result of my first ultra-trail was going to be registered and saved in the ITRA protocol.

I finished at 6 a.m. and went straight to my place where I had stayed. I needed a good rest and a long sleep to recover. I had no energy left. I gave my all to complete this race. Even the hidden resources of my body were brought into action.

I felt much better by the evening. When it was around 7 p.m. I went for a walk to the lake. Feeling relaxed, I slowly walked for 5 kilometers. I reached the lake by the sunset time. The sky was dark blue, cloudless and transparent. The orange sun was shining bright, colouring the smooth surface of the lake. It had been burning the steppe to ashes and draining out the ultramarathon runners all day. Out of breath, they stopped now and then and walked but there was no place to hide so they continued running.

I had experienced so much for such a short time at this place. The nature is strong and severe, and sometimes mesmerizingly beautiful, like a mirage in a desert.

I had spent so many long hours alone, all by myself. There was no one to talk to and to listen to, except for my inner voice that was constantly fighting my weakness, tiredness and pain. There was nothing ahead of me but the road. There was nothing around but the endless steppe. The white-hot daytime air slowly overcomes the coolness of night, and the horizon line is melting and merging with the sky that seems to absorb everything and take you to the infiniteness.

I had never been under such circumstances before and I am happy I had a chance to test myself and get a new experience in this special place. I became so much stronger, braver and more confident than before! I had been given a chance to see the world at a different angle, and I have definitely changed something in my worldview. My horizons have expanded. Elton Ultra Trail is certainly one of the severest and most mesmerizing trails.

Elton chooses its heroes. It chooses those who dare to challenge nature and themselves. If you are one of them, welcome to Elton!

It has become my good tradition to participate in the Elton trail running every year. In 2016 I took part in the race for the first time. It was the 4th Elton marathon. My first distance was 28 kilometers.

In 2017 I didn’t make it there. I missed the official competition but went there alone in winter and ran around Lake Elton when the trail was covered with snow.

Due to a weird turn of events, I still managed to participate in 2018, in the 6th season. I completed the 82-kilometer distance. It was a night race around the lake.

This place is haloed by the mystery of incomprehensible and even mystical events occurring there now and then. It seemed to me sometimes that I come back here again and again in order to touch the sacral knowledge, which only becomes achievable for a few chosen ones.

Seasons of the year come and go. Days go by. A night comes after a day, and a day comes after night. The scorching midday sunshine, enough to boil an egg, was resonating with a cold silent moonlight. Humans should only accept the laws of nature here. Only then this place will welcome them and they will become one.

If you think too much of yourself and set yourself against the laws of nature, the heat will drain your flesh out for a few hours, and the nocturnal predators, howling under the cold moon, will not leave a single bone from the mortal body dried out in the sun.

Alternating between day and night runs at Lake Elton, I finally felt as if I had found some kind of harmony with the place. When the 7th season started, I felt it was inviting me even in the daytime. Who dared and tried running at this place once, will remember it forever. The year 2018 turned out to be symbolic and full of important events for me.

I took part in 5 ultramarathons for six months, from October till May, in various regions, cities, and different climate zones of Russia. I was running under the rain or snow, in the morning or at night, on the flatlands and high in the mountains, suffering from oxygen deficiency.

Elton was my first trail running with a distance of 82 km. The second ultra-trail was in the Altai mountains where I ran 72 km. The third one took place at Mount Elbrus 56 km and was 56 km. The fourth run was in Saratov, my hometown, along the river Volga. The distance was 72 km. The fifth ultra-trail marathon I did was in St. Petersburg, 100 km long. Now I was looking forward to the registration opening for the 7th ultra-trail marathon of Elton.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.