600 km covered
Uffff, that was a mess. Eight days, five hours and 13 minutes. Tomáš Kadlec was the first in the three-year history of the race to finish on the royal 600 km route. An incredible performance and huge congratulations!! We are extremely happy that Tomáš made it to the finish line and we have to admit that we wouldn't have bet on him at the beginning and it's all the nicer for it.
Tomas came to the debate when we were going home. He couldn't make it from Pilsen. None of us knew him. He got a tracker, a starter pack and asked if there was somewhere to sleep. He didn't, so he put two steaks in his pocket and disappeared. A punk, we thought, not knowing what to make of him or if he had any experience at all. I have to laugh a lot now. Because if anyone had experience, it was Tomas. As the miles went by, we learned a little bit more about him. And with each new piece of information, we couldn't help but admire the guy.
His pace has been relentlessly fast, and more importantly his attitude is the key to conquering the given goals. He didn't let anything throw him off and accepted all situations with equanimity. Because it is a holy truth that it is useless to dwell on what we cannot change and dwell on what we can do to bring the situation under our control. Thomas handled this brilliantly. True, he didn't say much and kept his emotions aside, which is also the right approach.
Evenings were the worst for him. Since he used paper maps, he had a hard time seeing them and orientation was more difficult. I wouldn't want to orient myself by his maps when I saw them 🙂 So he tried to choose the option of spending as much darkness as possible in his sleeping bag and walking as much as possible in the light. He rarely slept under a roof, it's a waste of time. By losing his phone on the last day, he didn't know if Martin accidentally attacked overnight and got in front of him, so he had to keep rushing. His feet were supposedly going through hell towards the end.
Well, so we just bow down to the ground, and are inspired by his ordinariness, insight, humility and calm. It's been an honor. And now we're off to find Gizo, aka Martin Lazar, slicing the Beskydy ridge like butter.
