Thursday, August 15, 2019

Marathon #108 (country #18): Solidarity Marathon, Gdansk, Poland

3:57 finish, 238/688 place overall. Small marathon in northern Poland near the Baltic coast, starting in Gydnia and finishing in the historic center of Gdańsk. It’s held annually on Armed Forces Day, a Polish national holiday celebrating the country’s victory against the Soviet invasion in 1920, allowing Poland to remain independent until the start of World War II. The race itself commemorates the Solidarity shipyard workers union, based in Gdańsk, which played a major role in resisting communism in Eastern Europe during the later years of the Cold War. The course is relatively flat, but it got very warm with almost no shade later in the race, making the finish slow and miserable. Luckily, with a strong first half, I had enough of a cushion to squeak by just under four hours.