YEAR 2018

Vltava Run 2018: It’s all about running

On the weekend of May 12–13, the fifth Vltava Run relay race took place. In total, 3,473 runners from 294 teams joined the 36-leg race, with each leg averaging 10 kilometres and, leading through the most beautiful places in southern and central Bohemia. In the main category of teams with 10 to 12 runners, it took 23 hours, 23 minutes and 57 seconds for the winning team, Winehouse.cz, team to run the 360-kilometre course, finishing on a grass beach at the Hamr sports centre in Prague.

Vltava Run is unique not only for its length but also the course itself. “The route of the race was chosen to give the runners a chance to enjoy an interesting run through the wild nature, and beautiful places in southern and central Bohemia,” explains Květa Látalová, one of the main organizers. The teams ran through the Šumava National Park, along the Boletice military training area, along the entire left bank of the Lipno reservoir, and places like Vyšší Brod, Rožmberk, Zlatá koruna, Hluboká, Týn nad Vltavou, and the Orlík and Slapy reservoirs.

The second fastest team was the Eleven, finishing in 24 hours, 31 minutes and 13 seconds, with the GoMango-Högner team placing third at 26:23:19. The fastest female-only team was Oddíl OB Kotlářka (29:37:14) which beat last year’s winning female team by almost 5 hours; this clearly shows that the number and quality of female teams have been increasing, with 13 such teams participating this year.

In the category of teams of 6 to 9 runners, the Alman-ach KadlaKadla Ladies won at 24:40:07. Again, the Nadace Leontinka team of blind runners participated in the run, and their incredible performances, admired during the entire race, made it hard even for their pacers to keep up. Please find the complete results of Vltava Run 2018 here.

“All the teams deserve respect, as all the runners showed some fantastic performance, and despite minor complications, all the 294 teams made it to the finish. And the atmosphere during the entire race was just excellent,” says Látalová. “It took only 45 seconds to sell out all the registration places last autumn, so it’s clear that people are very interested, and based on their reactions, we are pretty much sure it’s going to be like that next year as well.”

Please see www.vltavarun.cz for the results of Vltava Run 2018 and for more information about the race. During the race weekend, lots of photos taken by the runners and marked with #vltavarun appeared on Facebook and Instagram; these images clearly prove the slogan of this event, unique in terms of its format, course, and story: “One challenge, lots of adventures”.