When I was making my 2019 running calendar, I had a long doubt about whether or not to go to Gniezno for its half marathon. The main reason for this is the financial aspect, since having two trips (Pili and Gniezno) outside the country in one month is still overhead (travel and accommodation). On the other hand, the city from which Poland's history began began to be neglected. A little hesitating, I still decided to visit him. And not in vain, because the trip was interesting. In addition, this time I decided to do a little experiment to save myself, including living.

Registration

You can register via the main event site: bieglechitow.pl. Registration is standard: you must specify the name, the size of the T-shirt wishes, phone and mail.

Road and city

This year I have already managed to fly to Poland many times. Therefore, based on my experience, I chose two cities where it is most convenient and cheapest to fly to - Katowice and Warsaw, from which it is easy to reach any Polish city by train. He reached Gniezno via Katowice. I was scheduled to depart on the 13th of Friday. It turned out to be a bad idea: instead of departing at 2pm, I left Kiev at 7pm, and by 6pm the flight was constantly postponed to a later date.

He originally planned to collect to Gniezno via Poznan, but stayed in Katowice at the station, which is always a direct non-stop train. The road took about six hours.

My introduction to Gniezno began with the monument to Przemysl II, which greets the city guests at the train station.

The city has many sacred places for Poles. I want to highlight the cathedral, and near it in the park there is, so to speak, a monument to Lech. According to legend, he saw the nest of the same eagle now depicted on the coat of arms of Poland, and founded the city of Gniezno. If historical sites are not for you, then a walk in the city can be turned into a kind of quest. Why? Figurines of a hare-berserker in different images are scattered around the city. This is already the third city in Poland where I have met such small figures (similar to those in Wroclaw and Green Gur).

Run

The delivery of the packages was scheduled for 6 pm at one of the schools. There was no special type of SportExpo here. After picking up my starting number and what is attached to it, I headed towards my future place of residence. This time, I was unable to rent a hotel or hostel, so as not to burden myself with searching for booking or airbnb, it was decided to go for a small experiment and use the offer of organizers to accommodate participants of a half marathon in the gym of one of the sports schools. During the half marathon in Slavutych, I already had a similar experience of such accommodation.

What can I say about that? This is a good option for cheaper travel. Runners were placed in the gym of the sports complex. The first participants got good seats - small mothers. This option saves the running budget (from 50-200 zł), but for me personally it is quite inconvenient. This option is more suitable for local participants, because it is not possible to bring a normal tourist mat and sleeping bag with you from another country. All this in my backpack just did not fit, so I had to give preference to the book-coach, and the sleeping bag had to be replaced with a plaid, which would still fit in my 30-liter backpack running things.

In addition, during the journey you are sometimes on your feet for up to 24 hours, after which you do not really want to sleep on the floor, although I can not say that I will no longer go on cross-country trips to such an overnight stay.

I will go to the half marathon "Bieg Lechitów". It turned out to be quite exciting. First, the start and finish are in different places. In order for the participants to easily get to the start, a transfer from the starting point to the starting point was organized.

The starting point is Lake Lednica (near which there is a kind of museum), in the middle of which is an island where one can see the remains of the palace of the first Polish kings of the Piast dynasty. The half marathon route is completely paved and mainly lies through fields and surrounding villages, only at the end of which it touches a bit of the territory of Gniezno. The finish line was located near the Cathedral in Gniezno.

The start of the half marathon "Bieg Lechitów" was scheduled for 11 hours. In the morning we set off for the buses that were to take us to the starting point. The road took about 20-30 minutes. Upon arrival we took a little stroll around the museum and the island.

As usual, half marathon participants were separated according to their time. This time I decided to run at 1:45, though as it turned out, I again overestimated my strength a little. And Gniezno became my second run after the half marathon in Pili, when I was pulsing. I can not say that it is kind of pleasing to me, especially when it starts to fly up and has to somehow bring it to bear, at the same time many unnecessary thoughts and annoyance from it appear. Previously, it was much easier - only speed and well-being were in my head.

Started again with Sergius. We stayed together for about 6 kilometers, after which he ran ahead, and I began to slow down a little. My dreams of improving time began to come to fruition after 5 km. I decided that there was no need to hurry and you could just start enjoying the natural surroundings.

Most support was at the finish line, although many small support groups were scattered throughout the route. I was still worried that I would have to escape the pavement, but it was not on the route. One inconvenience was the sun that could not be hidden.

Impression

The race seemed exciting and unusual. The main reason is the historical component, namely the place of start and finish.