About what Rubicon is, and how we invented it, measured it, stick it, wrote it, designed it, programmed it, argued on it, reworked it and how we put the finishing touches – you can read here. But now it’s time to check that we have succeeded and to overcome the Rubicon. We can say, from the inside.
Let’s go!
So, it came the 10th of February, and we went by bus to the start in Soroca. The Soroca fortress is the most famous fortress in Moldova. Because is the only one.
The guys are already prepared – the arch is installed, the fortress is open, the tanks are filled, the batteries are charged.
Our friends, the knights, drove up, they decided to support us in this patriotic race, thank them for the support.
The weather was beautiful — -7 C°, it was sunny, the snow has fallen recently and the forecast promised frost – ideal conditions. And the clock struck 12, the knights opened the gates, and we have run out to meet hundreds of kilometres of roads across Moldova!
Adrenaline was over the top – the knights rumbled nearby with armours, full of strength, and the sun shined – hoped that it would be so all the way!
The first stage of the Rubicon turned out to be very mountainous with a large gradient – it was hard for me to organize myself so as not to lose the whole group, but it seemed that we managed it – first ran was with a 6:00 min/ km speed, and in the hill we got up till 8:00 min/ km. The average pace was 6:29.
After Soroca were Floresti. I carried the flag of the Floresti district and I was overwhelmed with feelings – it’s my alma mater – I lived there from the age of 12 until I moved to Chisinau.
Here is a familiar glass factory on which we dragged bottles in drawers, here is the same stadium that I hated by all the fibres of my soul for making us run 3 kilometres, and here is the church, which … wait, but there was no church before …
School, yard, first cigarette, fights, first love. And then stagnation, devastation and poverty …
However, I still communicate with two Floresti friends of childhood – we are going and play preference. Hello Arthur and Badya!
In the bus it was fun – people talked, treated each other with delicious food, everybody was occupied to discuss the booklets – who, when, where and with whom runs, plans, strategies, ascensions, badges -in the bus was a cheerful hubbub .
People came in and went out of the bus. And meanwhile the sun was setting. And then the night came unobserved. And with it came the cool Sholdanesti stage. Weather forecasters did not lie – the temperature dropped to -10 and people began to wrap themselves in warm clothes.
But the more difficult the stage was, more pleasant it was to receive the badge!
Slightly frosting, warming up with a hot sublimation soup in the bus. Mmm … tastiness!
A couple of hours passed more, and now we were at the customhouse in Rybnitsa. Our guys were there an hour before us and were negotiating on the facilitated passage of the border. At that moment all that was required from us – was to keep a passport in front of us and run along the customs officers. We were counted and allowed to pass. I was carrying the flag. More precisely, I should have carry, but in order to avoid the conflicts we decided to remove all the flags and to run light handed.
What a surprise! At the customs, on the other side, we were awaited by a group of Transnistrian runners, some 20 persons. At 1:00 AM it was unexpected. They joined us under a noisy greeting.
That stage became for me, as for flag bearer, the most difficult. Due to the planned delay at the customs, we asked the pacemaker to bring the group a little bit earlier (5 minutes). But it turned out that he accelerated on the rise at the very end, because of what the group’s legs were hammered.
The Ribnita stage also began with a rise. Suddenly, my group stretched on the rise for 500 meters. What happened? I asked my neighbour on the right to run and to find out the reason for the lag, and 10 minutes later he came back and said that many had their feet hammered because of the rises, and there were also local comrades who in principle were not ready to run at that tempo.
It means we were going to run out of TMR at that moment, and the guys will be stuck here? I handed the radio to my neighbour – I asked to keep the tempo to the 6:40 km/h to slow down a little bit, and I ran back to the persons that remained behind. The picture was really depressing – someone was hobbling, some were already walking, people were stretched for a kilometre. I collected a small klatch still alive and, encouraging them with what we are expecting for, I dragged them to the finish. But it was impossible to gather everybody, so I decided that the whole group would stop and wait for the tardy before the custom house and only then to finish.
Rezina, 2 :00 AM, -15 degrees, the ascension – 260 meters per 8 km. That Rezina stage (RZ13) no one wanted to run it, including me.
That’s for – I were the organizer, for plug such kind of holes. That’s why, out of 180 persons, this difficult stage was to be ran only by me.
But the world is not without kind people, and my old mountain companion (Mont Blanc, Elbrus), Andrei Khokhlov, didn’t abandon me in trouble that time to, and he volunteered to support me.
So we started together. And then I remembered an excerpt from my Rubicon presentation two months ago. Everything turned out as I promised. Night, cold weather, a hill, even a small snow was going. Only I thought that we would be 20-30 persons. As a result, I and Andriusha together were ramming on with the flag.
It was the most memorable stage – I seemed to have got in the mountains and was dragging the flag of Moldova to the very top alongside my friend. Through the wind, cold and clogged muscles. But we did not have the right to relax – there was a target tempo and time to which it was necessary to run up to. But on the rise I began to lose ground. And then I was already running with the clenched teeth with 7:10 min/ km. Andrei did not care a cuss, he was supporting me. We were behind the schedule, and the hill became more and more arduous. The speed in places ran up till 7:30 min/ km. But we were fighting.
And in the Sporter bus there were people still alive – Mechin was not sleeping. After a lot of banterrings on our sufferings, he suddenly included my favourite song from the time of the Great Patriotic War “The grove near the mountain was in smoking.” I were often singing it when it’s hard for me, (for example, about “how to become an iron man” on the 27th minute.)
But that day it sounded more relevant than ever. And again a miracle happened. I was overcoming the pain, I began to accelerate till 7:00 min/ km, 6:40 min/ km, 6:10 min/ km. Andrew were screaming, I was scream, we ran faster. The bus driver did not understand what was happening and had not the time to accelerate. One kilometre till the finish, the rise is surrendered, and we rush till the 5:00 min/ km. And here were the finish – the average pace was min/ km! Excellent! We overtook the lose time in the custom house!
Now we must eat and go to sleep. Up to Old Orhei remained 4 hours. We should sleep. But it didn’t work. After a sublimation borsch, you can’t fall asleep especially. Maximum – you can flake for a hour in the shaking bus chair with the legs stretched diagonally. But the sleeping bag for Marathon Des Sables proved to be excellent.
After an hour Vadim woke me politely and with a malicious smile:
“Sir, we must run.”
I yawned, stretched and got out of the warm sleeping bag. Outside, it was just getting light. Well, good morning, country!
We left the bus, and we were standing in the semi-darkness, jumping on the spot, waiting. Sadly somehow … And then the boys were run up, we intercepted the flags and ran after the bus.
Crunch-crunch, chpok-chpok. We entered the operating mode. Suddenly from the column I heard the sonorous voice of Nastya:
– Way are you depressed, sportsmen?
– Where did you appear from? Yawning, I ask the radio.
– I slept a little, and now I’m ready to fight again, so the radio Rubicon was start the reception of applications for the morning show!
And then the things were off and rolling. To begin with, we included “Ничего на свете лучше неету…”. We came to life and began to sing along.
The walkie-talkie went from hand-in-hand, “Ну-ка мечи-стаканы на стол” and now let Leningrad be harder, or can it be in Romanian? Ok! Chora from Moldova!
And that morning was beautiful. For me, it was the top point of Rubicon – we, like children, who fled to their native country and burned their favourite songs, what could be cooler?
And somewhere outside of Orhei, on Saturday at 4 AM, I saw guys from the organizational team – Sasha and Dima. They were standing on the road and hugging each other. Well, I thought, well done, how many emotions, they were glad that everything it was going well. Later, when we were discussing the Rubicon, I found out the truth. They were hugging each other and saying something like: “F*k, only 16 hours passed. We could not stand it, we could not stand it! “:)
It’s nothing!! We withstood!
And after 3 hours we were awaited for the Criuleni. Not very memorable stage except for…The pretzels!!!
The fact was that Roman Fedorovich was waiting for us in Criuleni, who brought us still hot, freshly baked pretzels.
Such delicious, well, I’m sure that you ate them! This moment was the impetus, which encouraged and gave to many sportsmen new strengths ????
And not because something warm got into the stomach, but because behind them was a very cold night, which cooled and the adrenaline, and the muscles, and the motivation of some sportsmen. But who would confess? No one!
Those delicious warm pretzels drove completely out of head the thought that you were fighting alone with those kilometres, and everybody had forgotten about you. F*k. Our friends were with us ????
Thanks, Roma!
By the way, Roma then launched a hashtag #adoptarunner, to which a large amount of people reacted. We began to be brought warm food, drinks and warm smiles. Thank you from all the runners!
Speaking on the”hot takeout”. Some athletes were lucky a bit more. They drove behind a column on their own transport – those that had not enough room in the bus, those that just did not want to live in the hostel, but to survive the Rubicon in their “double”. And there, judging by the photos, it was comfortable ????
The boys put the burners, they carried with them three-little jars of soup, they were cooking it right there. Greetings to you, rubiconrunners!
Enjoy your meal, guys! We should test the next year that format of transport.
Till then plan for running in all districts had worked, but now it was time to separate the seeds from the chaff, the peas from the lentils, and the shell from the broken eggs in the frying pan.
On the horizon again appeared the TMR Custom house. It would seem nothing sinister, but it was here that the nightmare began with a claim for the Rubicon’s runners.
The fact is that in Grigoriopol district was only one stage (18 km), and before and after the Dubasari stages. Each of 13 km, and they are also unique. In short, to put a tick in all areas of this year, you need to run without stopping Dubasari + Grigoriopol = 30 km. And that was after already 70 km passed. I remembered that 50 persons were registered for that take. But after a day of running, many became sober, the adrenaline slept, and in the end this 30-km ran only 11 persons.
Well, we wouldn’t never get used to it. I put on the backpack with a walkie-talkie and a GPS spot, but only the flags had to be removed – the customs officers were nervous.
Then we were already awaited by the runners from Trannistria, we greeted each other and rode along the snow-covered road.
At the beginning everything was fine – the weather was awesome, the road was a mirror, in the sense – plane, we were running, chatting about the development of sport in the TMR. We told the guys about the plans that we would to hold a half marathon in Tiraspol in the spring, like we thought they should have been interested, but they are all talking about some hill.
And then another brisk girl ran up from the local TV, she was interested how things were going? Where are we going? What for? What we wore, what we ate, how we trained, etc. She was running next to us for a surprisingly long time – a kilometre, for sure. But then she looked forward, made round eyes, sent us an air kiss and flew away. And a week later, a reportage about the Rubicon on the TCB channel was released.
She escaped for good reason – there was waiting a for us surprise – The wall Oops. All the local people came to life – here it was, we talked about it, The Hill, with a capital letter. As it turned out it was – a hill with a climb of 100 meters.
Crawled, first we ran with a 7:00 min/ km, then with 7:30 min/ km, then with 8:00 min/ km. We were working … it was okay, there was a reserve of time, but it was sad. Everybody ceased to joke. I heard, my group was sniffle, but they were keeping the pace, and no one was behind. Strong fighters!
And here we were at the top, exhaled – in front of us were the 18 km of Grigoriopol stage and you could “rest”.
The second act of the Marlezzo ballet. The first 5 km of the hill were a pleasant bonus. Everyone came to life, their legs came a little to their senses, they began to talk. A boy was attached to me:
– Dmitry, what do you eat at the long stage?
And I told that to myself: “holy crap, I am slacker.” I have a simple scheme in my head – I ran, I ate, I ran, I ate. The stages are ”not long”. And here was thirty kilometres, it was necessary something to snack on the road.
Shit, how the brain is interesting designed: until I did not think about food, the run was tolerably, but if for a second you thought about, it was over – the brain began to demand carbohydrates, and it became difficult to run. And the road was also dreary – nothing was changing, either on the right or on the left, such a running track under the open sky.
In the city we made the turn, we ran back. To keep the pace was getting hard. I never thought that the 6:30 km/h was a working pace. And right then, I was running and it was right up close and there was no more force to accelerate. We run back. The knees from the asphalt were already aching – I was looking for a roadside snow-covered road.
It seemed that it was better – other stabilizer muscles were ”turned on” when you ran along an uneven surface and the load from your knees was removed. It remained the last 5 km. And again a hill expected us. And then I remembered about the cola. Aw shucks, why I done that? Running for an hour, my feet were already spinning, and all thoughts were only about the black-red bottle. I turned around and discharge the oppressive silence.
– Guys, who wants to cola??
– Me Me Me Me Me Me Me! I understood that I’m not the only one suffering.
– I knew that.” I switched on the radio.– Prepare a bucket of warm cola at the finish! I heard the approving exclamations from behind.
Those were the saddest kilometres of Rubicon for me. Firstly, psychologically – you led the killed group and you should keep the pace. Secondly, the legs were hammered from the three-hour asphalt pressure.
Suddenly, the Sporter bus and a bucket of cola loomed on the horizon. More precisely, the contrarily. At the finish we stood in a circle and hugged like old friends. Rather, even as fighting friends, who passed fire, water and several slides.
The girls from the bus later told us that they had not seen for a long time so that to drink the cola. Nobody took plastic cups that were put on the roof of the check-in car; everybody grabbed the two-litter bottles and drank with such faces that, by God, even a wild grizzly bear would be afraid to pick out the bottle.
I drained, perhaps, a litter and a half and, happily hiccupped, climbed in the bus to rest. Soon the Chisinau stage and it necessary to look if not like a million bucks, then at least like a seven hundred thousand.
After 2 hours my feet stopped buzzing. And it was time to start the Chisinau stage – a simple stage in the city with the finish in the central square. Cheerfully I jumped out of the bus, I checked in on registration point, and I went outside to wait for the other group. I had a lot of time – about ten minutes, so I was warming up, I learned from the guys how things were with the organization, I was getting acquainted with the new ones.
Suddenly, the bus and the runners appeared. I missed the point … I put on the flag.
– Why are you so early?”
– Oh, it’s cool isn’t it? Did you check it? We ran from the heart! 7 minutes ahead of schedule!
I was standing agaped with wonder, and the satisfied pacemaker was already in the bus. In other words he was thinking that he made us a gift – you can walk by feet now. Well, thank you, dear man…
I thought that it was okay, we would see into later, and we ran away. The group was quite large – some 20 persons. We were running 12 km from Togatino to the centre of Chisinau.
I hoped to meet fans on the way, support groups; maybe somebody from the press would join us.
But no, of those who were waiting for us, there was only one. In Riscanovka we were welcomed by Sergey Savchiuk (our friend from Giant), he waved the flag of Rubicon.
The people on the street, of course, also reacted. Yes, rather!- the police was going, behind it was a bus, in the bus played the music and a searchlight, some 20 persons are running after the bus and again the police. It was impossible not to notice that. Therefore, they waved, shouted, hummed, although sometimes it was not clear – that was a greeting or a damnation ????
Of course, I wanted that 10 years later, the town were waiting for us, so that people would go out into the streets to support us, waving flags, taking out braziers like I saw in the Comrades race, were feeding them with sausages and give them to drink. But I understood, that it was to early. We would wait for that.
So as we were doing uninterrupted live (in Chisinau, it was just perfect at all – from the console the editor displayed one or another camera), our film crew decided to use the transport to get more fun frames. And one of the operators took the trolley bus … But not the one ????
And was gone … with perplexity on his face ????
Then he caught up, of course.
So we got to the Circus, and only then I remembered that it was not necessary to run at 6:30, but much slower to get back in the program, but it was too late. It’s too late, because up to the square there were 1.5 km, which needed to “run” in 20 minutes. And then, for the first time in the whole race, I took an unpopular, but the only right decision – to go on foot. And we went for a walk – we chatted, we took photos to the one ban monument, thought even to go to eat some pizza .
In a word we took a walk in the night Chisinau. For 200 meters before the square we ran and finished on time! And there we were awaited by some 50 runners, a bunch of video and photo cameras, TV canals, congratulations and flags. Splendid!
By the way, the team worked both locally and remotely. So here we have a girl Natasha, who before the Criuleni brought to gays warm meals: pilaf, stew potatoes and broth. This food was eaten within few seconds. And Natasha thought that if the guys were so hungry, she have to bring more! And she brought. Before Chisinau, the guys in the bus had a large pan of warm pasta and chicken legs.
To eat then there was no time, they decided to wait. They waited. And in Chisinau during some permutations in the bus the pan … bugger and blast … fell out. Straight to the road. Right under the runners feet. Right in the live television broadcast ???? The guys were very disappointed.
And the Rubicon runners meanwhile were running in the airport direction…
Embracing Natashka and all those who we met, I ran to home – I had only 3 hours for a bath, meal and sleep. After all, my next stages (Anenii Noi + Bender = 24 km) should start at 1:42.
Home. My darling cooked some Zeama . With a capital letter, because after a sleepless night and a hundred kilometres, any hot soup is a joy, and here is a gorgeous Zeama! My daughter filled the bath, it seemed she forgot that I needed hot water, but does not matter – the bath was full, the task was done! I drained the water from the bath, I was looking from time to time at my watch, I had 2 hours for sleep. I filled the bath with hot water; I dived and stretched the limbs. Uuuuuu – this I howled with delight. In the running paradise, probably, like that started each day!
I got out of the bath, wet, but clean things I threw on the battery and went to sleep. It remained an hour and a half. Damn … I can’t fall asleep – I’m spinning, my head I had convoluted thinking. Soooo, I remember vipassana – we breathe deeply and noiselessly, and we do not think about anything … hrr … hrr … THRRR! THRRR! – the alarm clock. As if I had not slept at all. I got up, got dressed, I kissed the whole family and I was back into battle.
Sleepy Liviu was waiting for me in the car, and we are already rushing to the Anenii Noi to the next stage, on the way we caught Andryusha Khokhlov. We arrived within 15 minutes before the start. Excellent, it seemed we had the forces; it seemed the knee was ok, it was not cold outside, just -7 ° C, everything seemed to be ok, but optimism there was no anymore ????
The guys runner up, we greeted each other, slipped me five, I put on the flags, and let’s go! And in the bus, meanwhile, the life went on as usual:
Chpok-chpok, tchvyrk-tzvyrk – I was me looking for where to run, because at the last stage my knee began to ache. On the asphalt it hurt, I found snow or gravel on the road-side and I attached myself there.
Imperceptibly flew 14 km, and we were running up to the border.There were the Bender city. The guys took care about it, and we were let to pass without checking. Even the bus was let to pass. We greeted the customs officers, we gave them the salute and met the crazy Bender runners who woke up at 3 AM for running. We were running through the night city behind the car, 10 km, there are no hills, ran and be happy, but here were a surprise was expecting for us – at the third kilometre the bus was stopped by the traffic police.
I understood that I could not stop, and I overtook the bus, the crowd followed me – I’m the helmsman. But I had no idea where to run. The bus was always ahead. Okay. I urgently got out the phone and start convulsively to open the Bender map, the Internet was slowing down, soon should be a turn, where? To the left? To the right?
At the last moment I found a map, checked it out with the geo position and I turned in the right direction.
Now we would not get lost. And then the bus came up – they got outside of, and were let to go. And they gave an escort. It turned out that it was necessary just to call “02” and ask for an escort vehicle. We would know ????
It’s incredible, but in Bender we ran past a bar called Rubicon. It was the case when some people could finish their Rubicon in the ”Rubicon”;)
And there we were at the finish of the stage. Again, were drinking liters of cola and got in the bus, to our already smelly favourite friends. I was splitting sublimates. I took a few brands with me, and some were terrible. But the “mx3 adventure” was splendid, and with that same I was going in Sahara.
Yes, by the way, I was not paid for the advertisement; it was from the heart ????
In general, an hour of rest with the diagonally stretched legs, and again it was necessary to go out of the warm sleeping bag in the approaching cold morning. And here we were awaited by a pleasant surprise. The bus drivers woke up and were taking orders for any music – we included for ourselves some energetic things from the repertory of the music band ”Leningrad” and in good spirits we ran Causeni.
By the way, did you remember, I was talking about the number of participants Rubicon? I lied. They were not 174, but it was one more. With one four-footed friend more.
The pacemaker of the Causeni stage, Nick Orman, ran with his four-footed ”girlfriend” Nika, who, just like the whole group, it kept the tempo – 6:30 min per km ????
That’s all, finita, the legs have already been pinched, and the knee in earnest hurt. I was finishing. And now, according to the plan, remained only the finishing short stage in 7 hours. The race was practically over. I took all the districts. I fulfilled the plan. Well, as I was such a good fellow, I decide to go to sleep. Damn, I did not want anymore to eat, to sleep.
Well, I took out my laptop and I started to write up the 23rd chapter about how the gypsy Gojo saved Baro’s grandfather and Ji’s Death in a cornfield.
And here it was – the last stage in Stefan Voda, the customs office with Ukraine – Palanca village. On the half-bent, lame, stretched, tipped, knocked feet, the whole bus got out. Everybody wanted to finish. And that, damn it, it was cool! There ran up a group, on the move I took from Vadim the flags, we raised the Rubicon flags and we were starting!
The empty bus was left behind, and we were rushing to the finish in a huge crowd, to the real, to the complete, the absolute. After which, you had no need to plan, build a strategy and to save your legs.
We were going to the Finish, after which a warm bath were waiting for, and a delicious grub. But the main thing was the bed. Such a pure, cozy bed, which were inviting with a blanket and pillow, where you could pull out your knocked hooves and grunt of happiness. And we ran. From the bus, the music was roaring at full volume, we were singing!
We were flying at at the speed of 6:00 min per km like the birds. I was used to fly at 4:30 as a bird, but after 150 km, 6:00 min/ km seemed to be super-speed.
On the right and left fluttered the flags of Rubicon, in front rumbled music from the bus. The adrenaline went off the scale.
And there was seen the arch. But stop, I turned around and I saw that not everyone could keep that speed even with the bolt of adrenalin. Damn, I think it would be not fair to finish alone.
– Hey people, let’s wait for the tardy comrades before the finish? The people supported my idea with a roar. And there they were – some of them were running, and some even needed help, but he did not give up.
At 200 meters from the arch, we were waiting for the guys, they were delighted, so we were too. And the whole crowd was finishing.
Shots of champagne, shouts, hugs. 466 km of preliminary caresses. Finish was the orgasm. The real one, I did not remember so many hormones of happiness in my brain, explosion, I saw that not only in my brain. People were shining, embracing strangers, shouting something; everything was as if in a fog.
We raise the quadric into the air, we were standing in a circle and making the final photo from a bird’s eye panorama.
I embraced my sleepy dead team. What they were cool!
We did it! At that moment everybody had to go to sleep, no, first to the bathroom, then to sleep …
Results
I want to express my grateful gratitude to my team, which once again did not give up in front of some impossible tasks, but they did it. Without sleep, without rest, they outstood these several months of preparation and after that all the same without sleep and rest held out all three days of Rubicon.
Thank to the film crew who ran out from Soroca and finished with everybody in Palanca. Almost without stopping, they ran with the sportsmen, with equipment at the ready, running around, running all over, running over, etc.
Guys, I’m proud of you. And thank you for the fact that you are able to bypass the walls, break down barriers and work with maximum dedication in the name of the development of the sport in our country. Thank you.
Separately I would like to thank our partners who supported that idea.
The RedBull Company with its drinks and with the crazy Hummer that opened the start and supported us on the stages, and welcomed us at the finish line.
Canon and Puma Companies thank you for the support!
The T-shirts Puma was just a bomb!
Thanks Oriflame for the warm soups, thank Hyundai for the car that we were killing, killing and still did not kill it ????
It held out the whole territory of Moldova! Thank you.
And what we would do without the water OM – our constant partner?
And of course, thanks to all users of 999.md for the opportunities that they gave us: the Chisinau Marathon, the SeaMile, the Criterium, and many other events. And now it was the Rubicon.
And for the wonderful cake a separate merci beaucoup to Igor Nisenboim!
And now about the results. At the finish (as it turned out), I stated with witnesses that “There will not be any fucking! All was done well! “:)
Yes, there would not be any fuckings. But it would be the work on the mistakes, because it was a testing year, many moments still could not be taken into account, but we were able quickly solved it.
High scores
On the Rubicon were set high scores: both, by the participants and by the team. To totalize, summarizing all the kilometres of all participants, for the three days of the race we ran 8776.29 kilometers. 180 people participated. The coldest sector was – 15° C (Soldanesti), and it was ran by 57 people. The maximal number of participants in a stage was 76 persons (Chisinau, from the Square to the airport).
The youngest runner, who registered for the Rubicon was Alexander Ivanov (born in 1998), and the most aged athlete was Efim Goldshmidt (born in 1950). The girls too distinguished itself! We cannot say exactly how many girls there were, but two girls ran more than 100 km – Alexandra Brinzari and Tatiana Golodenko. Well done girls!
The personal record of non-stop running was put by Dmitry Svetushkin – 85 kilometres. The maximal kilometrage passed for the all three days by one person – 198 kilometres – Stanislav Chizh (who after that did not get in touch for 2 days, we did not know if he was alive in general?). And that’s why the most popular question on Rubicon was – How was Chizh? ???? One for all and all for one. This was the Rubicon.
Well, I (and seven more persons) managed to run all the 14 districts and collect all the badges.
To do that, I had to run 150 km for 50 hours, day and night, to gain 185 points and stand on the 4th place in the absolute.
These were the 466 kilometres, 50 hours, 23 minutes and 37 seconds. Crazy, sleepless, cold, hungry, smelly, but steep and mega-rallying! ????
Captions
On the project worked:
Dmitry Mironenko, Sergei Legeyda, Roman Stirbu, Olga Panchuk, Alexander Mechin, Andrey Matkovsky, Mariana Manole, Ekaterina Korolenko, Anna Vikneanskaya, Olga Maliutina, David Lutsyk, Vadim Zheleaskov, Olga Kozachenko, Viktor Orekhov, Ivan Melnik, Vladimir Uvarov, Lilian Gudumak , Dmitry Peskov, Maxim Rybalko, Junior Ugbo, Tatiana Dodon, Vasili Panchuk, Andrei Miloslavsky, Pavel Botnar, Anastasia Berzoy, Dmitry Voloshin.
PS: it passed almost a month, and many still have eyes burning when they remember about Rubicon. Don’t worry guys, you know, until the next Rubicon, remain only 11 months (full of competitions). So the time will fly unnoticed. And in a month I start for the Sahara desert for the Des Sables Marathon and you must pray God that during the 250 km of race any shit do not came in my mind ????
Get ready. Each time the Rubicon will become more severe and harsher. But for real heroes this would not be a problem! ????
