16th Ljubljana marathon

Another goal achieved this year. The idea was to run the 21 km run, the half marathon as an excuse to start training again with running. I don`t know when I got back to the addiction like running can become. I was already doing runs in the summer when we had many off flying days like Worlds, so I tried to use every free time to do some running.

This is like a meditation, after 5 km your mind shuts down and you can go on forever. August was too hot for stuff like that, but after coming back to Gorica I soon started with a small runs in a forest area right next to my house.
My first attempt to try the 21 km was after we had a conversation with friends after ... beer and they all agreed it is not that easy to run that long. Next day I went for it with small "meoooww" in my head and did it with out problems and under 2 hours which I assumed was fairly good enough.
The next try was marathon. Don`t run the last week, eat pasta.... Ah... No, I still went for a run, because it felt good to me. My only concern was tarmac road all the way and my knees.

I felt good waiting in the box for the run, the band "The stroj" that plays only on instruments made of garbage, where playing loud music so it kind of felt like you danced your way trough the start gate. They are just amazing, I felt the bass in my loungs while I watched the start of a 10km run 2 hours before my attempt.

First 4 km where painful for my knees and muscles so I was looking strange as the marks for km where passing me so slowly. After that I got in to the right mode and on 15 km I started to race. I did not know if I am doing the right thing there but I felt I can do it. Like with comp flying, I was jumping out of the slow "gaggle" and tried to get free way to run faster then the other group. Mostly everyone where running on the right site of the road as we drive our cars, so I had a nice place on the left doing my own thing. Earplugs and some good music turned off all the noise on the way, I only saw people yelling and smiling but never heard them :)

Last 5 km I felt like a bullet and was passing most of the people and came in to the goal with 1:40:18 time. 10 minutes less then my "meoouw" run :) I think I could do it better but for the first run was ok.

So this goal is now behind and I can focus only on Lanzarote trip that is waiting for me in December. Our friends are now competing at Canugra classics, Jonny is already kicking some ass with overall lead after his knee surgery, bravo Jonny!

Anyway, here in this video you can see how it looked when runners from 10 km run started. 18000 runners showed up to show how much sporty nation Slovenia is.

Ok, I must admit, I walk like a duck today ;)

Run can be seen at sports tracker

Autumn

It is all turning around so fast that it seems like I was writing that just few weeks ago.

Back again, back to Nova Gorica to work. But it is not all so dark :) as here I can fly mostly all winter, so a good spot to be if you are not on Australia :)
Imagine, just yesterday our guys flew for 92 km in the middle of October, well, I was grounded at work...
The week before I was on take off and got to flew for nice two hours, I should be happy to be where I am.

Cucco horses

Searching your old videos sometimes come up with some interesting things. Then one day you learn new techniques and you can do old stuff better as well.
This one is taken from a video from my N8 Nokia and it got an artistic overdraw. I don`t know the names of the horses, I only know Zac Majors in the picture, waiting for the traffic at Cucco mountain :)

Another test flight

Lots of videos in past days :) But it is all because I have some time to sit down now and actually make something out of the videos that I have made this year. Today I think we can say goodbye summer. Long time before it set up in August and long time until it said good bye just yesterday. We had some great flying days in September. I was just this week flying in the mountains behind Tolmin valley which for October is rather unusual but with big pleasure as all the autumn colours are out already. Of course I forgot camera at home (Murphy's law). We flew also in Carnia, Suan`s place in Italy. About 25 pilots showed up for "Festa del brutto tempo" festival that town organises for free flyers. We had a spot landing contest and with my second flight on a Ls I was happy with a landing 5 m next to the spot :D We have had a great day with climbs up to 2700m and I really enjoyed the race down the Zoncolan ski area :)

So, what to do to make this winter shorter.
My dream was to fly Lanzarote one day but the expenses are always those who are driving you to the other side of choice...
Thankfully this year Nokia will help me with the trip and for a favour I will have to produce something amazing with video there. The area is perfect for the N8 lenses so I am really looking forward for that new project.

So, I was test flying... My future wing

Tasting the States

During the Kobala open in Tolmin I had a chance to test fly the WillsWing T2c wing as Carole came from Switzerland with a demo glider. I know now, how can USA guys play so much with this gliders as they are so easy to fly. With pretty high sprog settngs on this one it was calling for some crazy stuff but all in all I had just two flights down as the weather did not let me do the decent flight wit it. I did my first 1080 HD video while flying down with it late evening in December.
Hope you enjoy it: