Transylvania Trail

Credit : Transylvania Trail On September 4th 2015, you’ll be organizing the Transylvania Trail. Can you tell us where it is located? The Transylvania Trail will take place in Bucegi Mountains, with the start and finish line in Bran, famous for the beauty of its surroundings, but mostly for being the home of Dracula’s Castle. How old is the race and why was it created in the first place? The race is at its second edition and it was born from our wish that foreigners enjoy the magnificent mountains, where we are running since our childhood and that we love so much. We wanted to share our natural treasures with the world and we had runners from 17 countries last year. §staticmap(17147,5,800,400) What kind of route have you set up for the runners? How would you describe it? All the 3 routes of Transylvania Trail can be described as very technical. Steep rocky uphills and downhills, single track paths, high altitude mountain plateaus, glacial valleys, canyons, thick forests, joined by runnable speeding areas. Wild nature at its best. What are the distances on the agenda? Our competition offers 3 races, designed for 3 levels of training and experience: Ultra Dracula – 106K Ultra Vlad the Impaler – 52K Silvania Trail – 26K Credit : Transylvania Trail How many runners do you expect on Friday morning? What type of runners do you plan to attract? This year we expect around 400 runners. Only experienced runners are allowed to enter the Dracula 106k and Vlad 52k; but anyone who has a clue about the mountains, trail running can join the short race of Silvania 26k. It is indeed a technical race but as long as mandatory equipment is carried all the way, time limit are fair so it`s a doable and enjoyable race. At that time of the year, what kind of weather can we expect? Weather is very pleasant in the Carpathian high hills at the beginning of September, usually low precipitation and temperatures of about 20 degrees Celsius at mid day. But of course all this can change at higher altitudes, above 2000m at night temperatures can drop as low as 0-5 degrees. Credit : Transylvania Trail Have you planned festivities around the event? Being yet a pretty small competition, for this year we are planning to bring a Romanian folkloric ensemble to delight the audience at the award ceremony in Bran. The race finished, what advice would you give a runner who has never been to Brasov before? A good restaurant, a fancy sightseeing? After seeing of course Dracula’s Castle in Bran, Brasov is a much enjoyed place by foreign tourists. The old medieval centre is filled with good traditional restaurants, dancing clubs and historical monuments. You can still see the bullet holes from the 1989 revolution in the Black Church which dominates the central square. Aquatic Paradise located 15 minutes away from the centre by taxi, is a great place to relax, enjoy the view of the high mountains that you have just conquered while having a massage, sauna or hammam. Both indoor and outdoor, “Paradisul Acvatic” rises at high European standards. Credit : Transylvania Trail In a single sentence, what would you tell the readers of ahotu Marathons to make them register for the Transylvania Trail? If you think you are ready to accept Dracula`s challenging invitation, to live a life-time adventure in the wild Carpathians, be prepared to run like a mountain goat, take roots like an edelweiss, and then again fly like an eagle through the finish line, come and run with us. But be sure you bring a piece of garlic with you. We are at Transylvania Trail, and this is not England! Interview with Mihai Zlavog, Race Director. Hihai is 31 years old and lives in Bucharest. He discovered Carpathians when he was a little child, lead by his parents who taught him to respect the mountain and that the mountain will respect him. He irremediably fell in love with the heights and started to trek on unmarked trails, do rock climbing, mountain bike, pioneering in adventure multistage races. One day, Maybe 15 years ago, he naturally began to run on the pathsand never got tired of running and running. When trail-running appeared in Romania, about 8-9 years ago, he was happy to find out he was not the only one doing that. He organized the 3rd biggest competition in the country, in Ciucas Mountains, and now here he is organizing Transylvania Trail together with Swedish partners.