He has been enjoying running for just three years. The other edition of the Košice Peace Marathon is getting nearer.
The other edition of the Košice Peace Marathon is getting nearer. The fact that the race is becoming more and more popular is witnessed by astounding, almost eleven thousand-strong multitude of registered runners in nine disciplines who on October 4, 2015 will take their stand on the starting line. One of them is 61-year old technologist of reliability of high and very high voltage electro-maintenance at the Power Engineering division, Miroslav Greško. He does not rank among the far-famed runners; as a matter of fact, he is going to take part in the half-marathon only for the fifth time now. “It was not running that lured me into sporting, but when I had just started work in VSŽ in 1972 in the position of relay service electrician in Power Engineering, my friends from the Socialist Youth Association invited me on a hiking tour in the Tatras,” he launched into talk. “I took a liking to it and every week we used to meet in the club room of the hiking division of TJ VSŽ located in the Kohal building, where I got gradually acquainted with active hikers such as Marián Konečný, Giovanni Columby, Hugo Přibyl, Milan Mišura or Pavol Kuzevič. At the beginning, I mostly enjoyed hiking and also Alpine hiking, and later cycle touring. As far as cycle touring is concerned, I have the most beautiful memories from a month tour in Scandinavia, where in 1981 I, together with a group of cycle-tourists, completed some challenging routes in Norway, Finland and Sweden. We succeeded in reaching as far as the highest mountain Galdhopiggen, 2 468 meters high, just on our bicycles. I was also in Sweden in the winter of 1983, namely participating in an 85.8 kilometer race named WasaLoppet from Berga to Mora.”
Turning to winter sport, Miroslav Greško participated 15 times in the Biela stopa cross-country skiing event near Kremnica, and also took part in other winter races in Slovakia. In the past, as a training instructor of hiking, Alpine hiking and cycle touring, and also as a cross-country skiing coach, he was a co-organizer of various touring events in that sport. But it was not until recently, namely three years ago, that he decided to try recreational running. “I do not want to be fully devoted to this kind of sporting, as it takes too much time, but at first I tried to test my fitness and endurance. Initially, it was shorter routes, later I added kilometers and nowadays I have five half-marathons behind me. On the one hand, I lost some weight, and on the other hand, running provides me with more energy for my life. I feel better and I recommend running to anyone in advanced age. Anyone who feels fit may try to run two, three and also five kilometers. He may take a liking to it as it was in my case,” he explains how he began with running, and adds: “I did not even think that after my 60th birthday I would win some medal. So I was all the more pleased to know that at the finish of the 10-kilometer race taking place as part of our Company's Summer Games I was the runner-up, of course, only in the category of men over 60 years of age, but still with the silver medal. I felt so good because, considering the difficult weather conditions, the resulting time of 42 minutes and 5 seconds seemed to me to be a good one. I am looking forward to the half-marathon at the Košice Peace Marathon on the route running through the streets of our city. My objective is to achieve a time under 1 hour and 40 minutes Well, keep your fingers crossed...”
