Štefan Nižník from Maintenance does not consider himself a runner. Nevertheless, he has been a participant in the Košice Peace Marathon for 25 years. His specialty is the half marathon, but for the last two years we have been able to cheer him on at the marathon course. In the past, he did not miss the event in Košice even after an injury - he at least joined the U. S. Steel Family Run.

"I consider myself mainly a climber, I have been climbing for almost 30 years. As a child, I liked to climb trees, later on a training rock, or on an artificial wall as part of a climbing club. I'm a climber at heart and the run came along with that," says Štefan.

He started running thanks to The Kubín Memorial - the duathlon event. It combines a more than 16-kilometer run with a test of climbing skills on a training rock. In honor of the legend of Slovak mountaineering Róbert Kubín, it is organized by the Mountaineering Club of the ŠZ TJ Metropol Košice.

"As a young man, I took a course in a climbing club and there they gave us a condition that if we wanted to successfully complete it, we had to run the Kubín Memorial. A few days before the race, I went to train in the forest, running around Košice was strange at that time. After the infamous hundred meters of running, I had to switch to walking... The next day I tried it at a very slow pace and ran 8 kilometers. I finally managed the Kubín Memorial and since then I have been participating in it every year. This year was the 40th year."

The name "Števo" Nižník is known at the Kubín Memorial. He achieves excellent climbing and running times here, he has won it several times. From there, it was only a step to the half marathon. The running part of the duel is quite difficult, you run uphill, from Jánošík's Bastion, through Vysoký vrch, Hrešná, to the Rokodromo training rock in Čermel.

"Over time, I said to myself that if I could run this race, I could also try the half marathon, which I regularly went to watch as a spectator. So in 2000 I tried it for the first time and since then I have been running at the MMM every year, usually in the half marathon discipline. Every time I finished after a half marathon, it occurred to me that those marathon runners were running the same thing again and that it was simply impossible. But I was tempted to make it one day... And then came the exceptional 100th and 101st year of the MMM. I will experience the centenary only once... so I started training, asking our runners like Jožko Sciranko or Slavo Albrecht how to prepare. I ran the 100th year of the MMM in 3 hours 34 minutes, the next one, last year's, in 3 hours 27 minutes."

Štefan admits that he has a problem with cartilage, so he can't run as much as some runners.

"Some people run every day, if I did it, it wouldn't turn out well... I have to adapt my trainings, I have a two, three day break between them."

MMM and the Kubín Memorial, which is a matter of his heart, are two stable races of which he is a part every year. From time to time, he tries the Cross Country Jahodná, the Hámornícky Half Marathon, or the local runs Pozna běhom Košice. This year, he placed second in his category at the Hámorník Half Marathon. He also has several medals from our corporate Summer Sports Games, at this year's he won bronze in the 10 km run. It seems that he has passed on his enthusiasm for sports to his sons.

"My younger son will be 8 years old and this year I was very pleased that we ran 3.7 km together for the first time in the city. He received a medal and was very happy. The older, seventeen-year-old, was also a bit caught up in it, he joined the event Get to know Košice by running, sometimes he goes for a 4 or 5 km run."

This Sunday, Štefan Nižník will again stand at the start of the MMM:

"I'm going to run a half marathon on Sunday. It is an exceptional event, well organized, with a lot of spectators who cheer us on. Among them are my family and friends, I know approximately where they are standing and then I look for them with my eyes. It's not about the placement, but about being satisfied with my performance, with myself."