She fell

That's it. She's down. At 4:30 a.m. Martin Lazar arrived at the finish line, thus concluding this year's, officially the second year of the Montane Jibe Jaha. We tip our hats to Martin and marvel at his steady and incredibly persistent, machine-like pace. At the same time, his calm and sovereign approach to the matter deserves admiration. He simply calculated how it would be, and then it mostly was. We didn't know Martin at all before the start either, and he seemed very modest according to the questionnaire he filled out. But where, as with Tomas, we were discovering his personal identity as the time on the track grew. Thanks to his friends, with whom he organizes the Wallachian Hump and the Jesenice Marathon, we found out that they call him nothing but Gizo. And they also revealed that he came up with this nickname when he was about ten years old, when a programmable calculator spilled it on him. Gizo, according to his wish without inflection, is an IT pro and mathematician who can usefully apply this science to the world of his exploits.

He has counted to the last gram, millilitre and minute everything that can be counted. But at the same time, he doesn't get distracted by what can't be counted, or when a big unknown comes into the equation in the form of unexpected situations. For example, these occurred before Rabbits, where Martin's phone and tracker stopped working. Thanks to a broken cell phone, he couldn't pick up his special food packages, so he had to improvise. In Petříkov we saw his swollen shin, which was in pain. He said he would try to "work it out" and see how it goes. He walked the whole 300 km and at the finish he boasted that he would have liked to continue if his shin hadn't been bothering him. Like Thomas, Gizo's worst marches were at night. The Jeseníky Mountains were harsh, but he liked the harshness. Like Tomas, he had experienced the fury of Praděd on Vysoké Hole. The latter was apparently furious that his mountains had been so quickly conquered, and he sent them thick fog, darkness and wind. If he hadn't had a watch, he said, he would have been completely disoriented. The same with the Beskydy Mountains, although he knows them so well, they tested not only his physical fitness. The most difficult for him was the stretch from Ropice to Havířov, his legs did not serve him anymore, but his head fortunately did. The journey took him 8 days, 19 hours and 30 minutes (roughly, Gizo has certainly measured it to thousandths himself:) Thanks to Gizo we know that the category of walkers is real. Congratulations and kudos to the ground.

This year's edition proved that Montane Jibe Jaha will be completely different every time, every time very challenging and at the same time every time it will bring a lot of good and bad experiences that will settle deep in the heart and stay there. It was beautiful to see and experience that everyone left their egos at home in the closet and packed humility, reason and most importantly camaraderie into their backpacks. This was the focal point of the challenge. The shared hardships and beauty of adventure, intense experiences of any kind are the greatest reward one can take away from this challenge.

This year's atmosphere was great and completely absorbed us. We are extremely pleased with the reactions of not only those who participated, but also those who cheered from afar and at least virtually experienced what was happening on the route. It was as it was and everybody finally realized that it doesn't really matter how it is. The important thing is what it brought. And in the words of the classic, such an experience is not transferable, it has to be lived.

A result or placing is fine, it can be a bonus, but it is secondary, which is why we have no winners or losers, only those who were not afraid of the wolf and took up the challenge. It takes courage to take on something like this. It's just that once you've tried it once and found it actually works, you'll want to do it again. Well, we're actually looking forward to what the next edition will bring, which kicks off on Friday 31.1.2025

Thank you to everyone who stood up for the start, giving us the motivation to keep going. And a big bow and respectful thanks to those who help us in this. Especially Vertone, who did not shy away from the uncertain outcome of such an event, but on the contrary believed that it would be worth it. Thanks to them we could raise the race to a higher than just punk level. A huge thank you to our helpers. Aunt Vera for providing a quality and entertaining CP in Špindl and Dana Nováková for the gourmet experience there. To Karl Francke for learning the excellent broth and taking care of the CP in Maršov, to Eva Zemínová for allowing us to use her beautiful cottage and company in Petříkov, and to the Hostinskis for providing us with asylum in their apartment in Havířov (and for watching over our offspring together with my mother, and therefore not being able to be in Havířov). After all, it was created as a "March to my mother-in-law, from Jablonec to Havířov". We also thank the Jandus family for the opportunity to use their apartment in Špindl. Simply thanks to the kindness of others it would not have been possible, and we are glad that you share the same enthusiasm as we do. (PS. And thanks to Petka Šilhánová for buying me a toothbrush and toothpaste so I could kiss my wife at the finish line 🙂 Last but not least, a big thank you to our web guru Vitek, because without him the world would not know about our JIBE JAHA challenge. Thank you very much Vitek!!!

Anyway, it would be long to write, but suffice it to say that we thank you all once again and look forward to more adventures together.

Venca and Guest Francke