For his spring marathon offering, Szymon Chojnacki was back in his home city of Łódź for a race that was the designated Polish National Championships
Designated as the Polish National Championships, the DOZ Maraton Łódź had added meaning this year and an extra incentive for Szymon Chojnacki to do well in it. Hence, he wanted to be at his absolute best. Unfortunately though, events conspired against him and it turned out to be more challenging that he had anticipated.
He started feeling unwell on Friday and spent most of Saturday taking various medications to try to recover. He felt week as he headed to London to catch his flight and could barely stand. At this stage, his marathon prospects weren’t looking good. But Szymon is a warrior and he was determined to give it a go anyway.
Aiming for a time of between 2 hours 41 minutes and 2 hours 43 minutes which would have been a personal best for him, Szymon set off on his way, targeting around 3:50 per kilometre. A very fast opening mile saw him clock a 5:58 before he then settled into a pace of around 6:10 to 6:15 per mile. Going through the first 5k in 19:15, he then reached the 10k stage in 38:43, which was bang on the pace he was looking for.
It was going quite smoothly for Szymon in the first half of the race
His next 5k was a 19:41, so that was around 6:15 to 6:20 pace before a 19:45 5k took him up to 20k. That saw him reach the half marathon point in 1:22:33. He wasn’t look at an improvement on his PB of 2:43:18 which he did at the DOZ Maraton Łódź of 2022 but was still on course for a good time.
The heat began to take its toll on Szymon later in the race
His pace dropped a touch after that to around 6:30 but he was hanging in there. He started having problems after 25k and it became a real battle after that. His next 5k was 21:50 and he’d dropped to around 4:05 to 4:10 per kilometre. It was an unseasonably hot day as well, at 24 degrees and with the sun beating down it became an even tougher task for Szymon.
He’d gone through 30k in almost exactly two hours and even though he was struggling, he was still able to go at around 6:40 to 6:45 pace. He got through his next 5k in 21:16 before going on to complete his last one in 21:19. That left him with just a couple of kilometres to go to make it to the finish.
Szymon heads toward the finish
Going over the line in a time of 2 hours 51 minutes and 55 seconds, Szymon finished 33rd overall and was 27th male out of 1,533. That put him 4th in the M40 category and 3rd placed out of those who were actually from Łódź. His average pace was 6:28 in the end for the 26.43 miles he covered.
It was a brave performance from Szymon given the issues he was having
It may not have been the result he was hoping for but that was still a time most runners would be over the moon with. Especially given that he wasn’t feeling well and that it turned out to be hot conditions.
That was Szymon’s seventh marathon and his fourth in his home town and it was always nice to be back there running. He had plenty of family friends out there supporting him which was nice and, even though it was one of his tougher ones, that would have made it a touch more bearable.
Szymon’s time of 2:51:55 was a very decent effort under the circumstances
The race was won by Adam Nowicki in a time of 2:14:18, with Mateusz Kaczor taking 2nd in 2:16:29 and Kamil Karbowiak claiming 3rd in 2:18:25. Aleksandra Brzezinska was 1st female and 9th overall with her time of 2:34:25.
Emilia Mazek was 2nd lady in 2:36:07 which put her 11th overall and that was just enough to edge out Anna Bankowska who crossed the line in 2:36:33, making her 3rd female and 12th overall.
A couple of weeks after the marathon Szymon went on to compete in the RUNda Żubra Leśny Półmaraton which turned out to be an eventful one. He was actually leading the race with another runner until they deviated from the route at about 3k and ended up doing an extra 3km before getting back onto the course. They lost their place in the lead after that.
Szymon had been in the lead in the RUNda Żubra Leśny Półmaraton until he went off course
Then later on there was a thunder storm which resulted in some of the slower runners being taken off the course before they could finish. As a result, the organisers made the decision to base the results on just one lap of the course, which which was 10.7km, instead of the full two laps, even though most of the runners had done the full course.
Since he’d got lost though during his first lap, Szymon ended up finishing 18th in a time of 52:04 when he would of course have been much quicker and quite possibly would have won if he’d gone the right way. He ended up doing 15 miles in the end in just under 1 hour 37 minutes, with an average pace of 6:27. It was a shame as, instead of potentially experiencing the sweet taste of victory, he was left wondering what might have been.
He may have another chance of glory soon though when he heads to the Poole Festival of Running Relays where he will line up with Rich Brawn, Adrian James and Trev Elkins in an M40 team that will be striving for an age category prize.