🏃♂️ The Beginning of the Running Story 🌞
Good day and greetings to everyone!! 👋
My name is Dejan Popek and I come from Zlatar in Hrvatsko Zagorje, and in running circles some people also know me as the “Knight of Zlatar” 🏅⚔️. As for where I got that name, I’ll talk about that a little later.
I am currently 54 years old 🎂 and I started running sometime around 2014 🏃♂️💨. The reason was that I wanted to stay active, and before that I had played veterans’ football in my hometown for three years⚽. However, that simply came to an end halfway through the season, and I wanted to find a way to remain active.
By chance, I came across photos on Facebook of one of my colleagues from a race somewhere in Zagorje 📸. In those photos, I saw the cheerful and smiling faces of runners who were running across a meadow full of mud 🌱💦, and people were completely covered in mud, but they were happy and having a great time 😄.
I immediately thought: “Is it really possible that we have something like this here?? 😄 This is exactly the kind of thing for me!” and I immediately asked her when and where the next race was, and just two weeks later I was at my first race in Krapina, some kind of 12 km Krapina Trekking race 🏞️. And I simply got hooked, it was love at first sight 💛.
🏔️ My Races and Achievements 💪🔥
Since then, I have actively participated in all kinds of races, mostly trail races, and from time to time I have also done a road race 🛣️, but I mainly prefer trail running and 90% of my races are trail races 🥾. That is also how I found out about the Trekking League 🏆, and I can freely say that I have been one of its most active members since 2014. I currently hold second place in the Trekking League in terms of the number of races completed. I think I have 118 now, so I will soon overtake my friend Milan, who has one race more than I do 🏅.
I can also mention that during these 12 years I have been among the top 10 in the Challenger category (around 25 km) 🏃♂️ almost every year, and my best overall result was fifth place two years ago 🥉.
Besides the Trekking League, I also enjoy running other races 🌄 and, for example, I have been to Istria six times for the “100 Miles of Istria” event 🌿, where all six times I ran the 69 km Green Course. I simply love Istria❤️.
I also ran the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Italy, 50 km, two years in a row. The first year I was disqualified halfway through the race for exceeding the time limit⏱️, but the second year I finished it successfully 🏅.
And as my greatest achievement, I would certainly highlight taking part in the UTMB OCC race on Mont Blanc 🏔️, where I finished the 58 km race, and it was absolutely fantastic 🤩.
When I started doing these races, I also discovered the Samobor Winter Trail League❄️ and I have been actively participating in it since its very beginnings, sometime around 2014, and in those 12 years I may have missed it only five times in total. Otherwise, I am at every round and I absolutely love our winter league 💖, and it is an excellent base for us going forward, for the entire season and for all the other races in which we compete.
I also met many wonderful people there, people I often spend time with and meet at all kinds of different races 🫂, and I can freely say that wherever I go for a race in Croatia, I will always find someone I know, and that is one of the beautiful things about all of this 😃, that wherever you go, you are never alone.
As for road races, I have one marathon 🏃♂️, the Zagreb Marathon in 2017. I have run around ten half-marathons 🏅 and about the same number of 10 km and 5 km races 🏃♂️💨, but trail running is still my greatest love❤️.
⚔️ Why “Knight of Zlatar” and My Motivation 🌟💖
And now we come to the question of why “Knight of Zlatar” 🏰? My friend Milan Komljenović came up with a race in the Samobor Hills, the so-called SPO, which stands for “Samobor Hiking Circuit” 🌲. It has 17 checkpoints 🏞️ that need to be completed within 15 hours⏱️, and every man who completes the race within that time limit receives the title of Knight, while every woman receives the title of Princess 👑.
I completed it within the time limit, and it took me just under 12 hours⏳. I ran 60 km with 3,000 m of elevation gain 🥾🔥 and received the title of Knight of Zlatar 🏅⚔️.
Now for the important question: why do I run 🏃♂️? I will answer simply: because I can 💪, but that is not the only reason. First of all, I love travelling✈️, I love discovering new places 🏞️, new trails, new mountains, new people 🌍. At these races, there has always been such a positive atmosphere 😄, friendship and companionship 💖, and that is simply a feeling that fulfills every one of us.
No matter how difficult a race is, you always return home full of positive energy 🌟 and feel much better because you know you have done something good instead of staying at home in front of the television 📺 or, I don’t know, at a betting shop 🤑 or in a pub 🍻. So I would definitely recommend running to everyone, because you will get to know many different parts of the country and meet many positive people, and that is otherwise difficult to find in everyday life.
As for my training, I have to admit that I am quite weak in that area 😅 and I do not train regularly, sometimes I do not train at all, but that is why I am almost every weekend somewhere at some race 🏃♂️💨, so all these races actually serve as a kind of training for me.
So, all of you who are wondering whether you should run or not, my answer is very simple. Don’t think about it at all, just start✅, because believe me, you will have a great time. You will meet many people 🫂, you will become close to some of them 💛. Some of them may become your best friends, you will travel together✈️ to races, spend time together, share your passion for running 🏃♂️💨 and, at the end of the day, what matters is staying active. It is perhaps better to spend time outside running, and it does not even have to be a race. It could be some training or hiking, but in any case, any outdoor activity is much better than sitting on the couch in front of the television.
Another important thing about running is that we are all equal there 🤝, meaning that in running it does not matter where someone comes from, what job they do, how much money they have, who they support or which political party they belong to. None of that matters. The only important thing is that we all have a good time 😄, complete the race and then socialize afterward 🫂 and go home satisfied 🏡.
In running and racing, there is none of the tension, competitiveness or roughness 🛡️ that you sometimes see in other sports where people play dirty and where referees make decisions. Not here. Here, the only thing that matters is the stopwatch⏱️, the instrument that shows how fast you are and whether you are faster than me or I am faster than you. At the end of the day, all runners help each other❤️ during the race as well. If they see that you have stopped, sat down or something similar, they will all ask you whether you have water, whether you have a gel, whether you need a plaster, whether help needs to be called 🫂, so it is a very close-knit community where we all look after one another.
My life motto 🌟? Honestly, I haven’t thought about it too much, but one of the most important things I live by is that every person should do what they love, whether that is a sport 🏃♂️, whether it is their job 💼, and believe me, life is not all about money 💰. What matters is that a person feels fulfilled, happy and satisfied 😊 and that at the end of the day they can happily go to bed 🛏️ and fall asleep knowing that they had a good day and were surrounded by positive people 🌈 who think similarly, perhaps have similar views on life, and that is the most important thing. Be positive in everything you do 🌟, and simply ignore and avoid all the negative things 🚫 as much as possible, because you do not need them in your life. You only need what fulfills you and what makes you happy 💖.
See you at a race!! 🏃♂️💨💖
Greetings!!! 👋😄