They ran night and day, in sun and rain. Through hills and hot tarmac roads they sped... Running events are currently extremely popular and the employees of the forge in Trnava couldn’t resist either. A team of six had its skills first tested in spring at the National Run at Devín – Bratislava (Národný beh Devín – Bratislava). After the twelve-kilometre ordeal, they set the bar significantly higher in summer. A team of twelve ran from the Demänovská dolina (Demänová Valley) all the way to Bratislava as part of the Od Tatier k Dunaju event (From Tatras to Danube) on 17–18 August.
Through hills and hot tarmac roads
The production-technological director of HKS Forge, Slavomír Gregor, also took part in the group activity. “The race was ran as a relay – each of us ran three legs in total, two during the day and one at night. The most difficult one for me was definitely the last leg when the temperatures climbed above thirty degrees,” explains Slavomír Gregor. The competitors used cars for transport around the race track to make sure they got to the relay point in time. Each member of the team ran approximately thirty kilometres. “In the initial leg of the race, we ran in a demanding mountain terrain. The south part of Slovakia was, on the other hand, an open region with no place to hide from the Sun,” describes another participant, the Technical Production Preparation Lead, Miroslav Griflík.
Slavomír and Miroslav agree that adrenaline played an important role in keeping the runners going, and they were able to perform even after a sleepless night, running in rain or heat. “Our goal for this race was to finish in under thirty-six hours; we managed it in great thirty-one. We managed to exceed our expectations thanks to the fighting spirit of all team members,” says Miroslav Griflík. “I was surprised by how well we stuck together. No team building I’ve ever been on managed to bring people so close together as this race,” Slavomír Gregor adds.
Join us, colleagues
The most beautiful moment came toward the end when all twelve runners symbolically crossed the finish line together. The “mission complete” also came with great results. The team placed 58th out of 160 teams in their category (teams with 9–12 members). They got 29th out of 81 teams in the company relay discipline, and they placed 74th overall out of 214 teams registered. They ran 345 kilometres in total with the time of 31 hours, 8 minutes, and 5 seconds. The more the merrier. Through this initiative, the successful runners would like to get the colleagues at HKS Forge to join them in the upcoming challenge. Together, they’ll run more than 525 kilometres from Košice to Bratislava. A special challenge goes out to the fairer sex, as the team representing the forge is still missing a female member.
Kvet
