PODGORICA, MONTENEGRO (10.11.24)
6 months after my trip to Serbia for Belgrade Marathon, I arrived in my 32nd country; Montenegro for Podgorica Marathon. Training had gone OK until about 4-5 weeks before when I'd picked up a calf strain and had to ease off a fair bit and recover. After massages, a careful tester 3 mile run and lots of rest I decided I was fit enough to race. A few days beforehand I was a guest on a running podcast talking about my favourite European marathons: open.spotify.com/episode/3BVVVyKZXXmyNeq9A35TN0?si=c2934bac9abc4732
Due to Ryanair cancelling my original flight, I had to head out earlier, landing in Dubrovnik and taking buses towards Podgorica via the stunning Kotor Bay and golden beaches of Budva.
Ahead of the trip I was put in touch with Vasilije who has ME and lives in Podgorica, he agreed to be interviewed and this is what he told me about life there with the illness: www.mikeseumarathons.eu/montenegro.html. I met up with him the day before the race for a coffee and he bought me a Montenegro football shirt as well as agreeing to drop me back at the airport on Monday! Top bloke.
Start
As the race started at 10am, there was plenty of time for breakfast which made a nice change! After a ham and cheese omelette, I met Mark and we walked to the Millennium Bridge for the start. There was a good crowd already there, plenty of half marathon and 10km runners but only 88 marathon runners as I'd discover later. I met some Brits including Geordie Arron Simpson who was on his 19th country. It was warm with a slight breeze up on the bridge as we took a few photos, listened to what I assume was the national anthem and then the race started to a stinky but spectacular sulphurous explosion of blue and white smoke. I started near the back, electing to take it steady and see what happened with my calf but after a slow first mile where it was a bit crowded, I got into a decent rhythm of sub 9 min miles and aimed for the shade. Wide avenues to start with as the route followed Beogradska through the Masline district below Gorica Park. I'd gone for a walk there the morning before and saw the impressive Partisan Fighter Monument whilst having a lovely cup of apple tea.
The first refreshment station came after a mile or so and there was only about 10 water cups out on the table which made me worry a little but I decided that it was just because not many people wanted water that early. There was a band playing along to a back track of Survivor's 'Eye Of The Tiger' but the track was skipping and the drummer was well out of time which made me chuckle a bit. I remember feeling pretty good from miles 4-10. In fact I was quite a long way ahead of the 4 hour pacer and starting to foolishly visualise beating my PB from back in 2017. It was short-lived though as they caught me up at the 11th mile, ah well. Lots of signs for vineyards but we definitely hadn't run through Europe's biggest one like the marketing had promised which was a shame, perhaps they changed the route last minute? In any case, the course was extremely flat so far and the mountain views were awesome.
Middle
Not much support nearing the halfway point and it was warming up a bit as I chucked half cups of water over my face to the sound of Bryan Adams in my ears. I went to the right to go around again as the vast majority of runners trailed off to the left, things were about to get very lonely! Running down the M2.3 motorway was super-flat but a bit dull. I managed to get a short shower after gesturing to a window cleaner to jet spray me outside one of the many furniture shops along the road. A bit further up the road I saw Mark coming the other way and we stopped for a brief chat before cracking on. Once more past the very squished dead cat on the road, wish I didn't look down at the tarmac so much, poor bugger! There was plenty of police about especially across the vast succession of roundabouts, for the most part they did their job but on a couple of occasions they let cars pass across the route and I had to stop and wait for them -they really need to stop doing that if they want this race to grow. A few people did wind down their windows to encourage the runners which was great but the build up of exhaust fumes and frustrated honking from some wasn't so welcome.
For the first time around 18 miles I couldn't see anyone ahead of me or behind me. It felt like I was on a weird training run with the road closed and in relentless sunshine amongst the car dealerships and mountain views. They had switched up to little bottles of water at this point which I was pretty grateful about as it definitely was feeling a bit warm out on the dual carriageway. At one point out in the suburbs there were some young kids jogging alongside the runners, I had a gang of 3 chasing me for a bit which was a nice distraction. It was around this point that I felt like I needed to use a toilet but I didn't see a single one on the route and there was a distinct lack of unguarded areas to go (I ended up finding a spot around the back of a building under construction). I was doing OK, I was running for 3 songs on my playlist and then walking for 1 minute, not ideal but I was protecting my calf and running low on energy.
End
At this point I found myself in a slightly embarrassing situation of overtaking and then being overtaken repeatedly by an old guy with a very well worn running vest and short shorts. He was probably in his late 60's, hunched and had a very odd running gait but he was getting the job done, barely stopping and just cruising along. After the painfully dull traffic cone turn just short of 20 miles, the route headed back over Union Bridge with the stunning bright blue Moraca river, a definite highlight of the race. A bit further up and another river crossing at Blažo Jovanović with just 2 miles to go. I was properly struggling at this point and running for almost a mile and then walking for 1 minute, not ideal but not even the banana pieces and flapjacks could keep me going. I got overtaken by the 4 hour 30 pacer which I was a little annoyed about but I was just looking forward to done soon as my quads started to cramp a bit. There was a handful of people clapping from the outdoor bars and pavements through the old town at Stara Varoš as the finish approached.
Out of nowhere the German guy in the top hat and tails came through and overtook me yards from the line! I'd seen him a few times through the race and also in my previous race in Belgrade and was keen to catch him for a chat. There was an MC announcing the names of the runners but there was little more than about 30 people near the finish line including a couple of photographers so it was a little anti-climactic. Nevertheless there's no bad finish to a marathon and I was really happy to get over the line, knocking 25 mins off my last race time and with my dodgy calf still intact. Arron was cheering everyone over the line even though he'd finished a good hour earlier, we had a quick chat, I called home and then headed off for a shower and many lagers.
Weather
14c start climbing to 19c. Cloudless sky, light wind at times.
Ratings
Course: 6/10 - Mostly out of the small city centre, no sign of Europe's largest vineyard as promised but some great mountain views.
Expo: 7/10 - Upstairs at Hard Rock Cafe! Very small, friendly but no stands, merch or much atmosphere but fun nonetheless.
Support: 5/10 - Don't want to be too harsh as its a city of 200,000 and only 88 marathon runners, but very sparse.
Refreshments: 7/10 - Half filled plastic cups, then bottles later, flapjack, banana pieces, coca cola. Well marshalled every 2m.
Goodie Bag: 8/10 - Tshirt, nice drawstring bag, Powerade, Branded water bottle, strawberry puree pouch,
Medal & Pics: 8/10 - Chunky medal with Millennium Bridge. Free Get Pica pictures which were good but packed with logos on them.
Time Completed: 4hrs 36 mins