#ljmarathon

Held in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, one of Europe's smaller capital cities with just about 280,000 inhabitants, the Ljubljanski maraton is a massive running event with more than 24,161 participants in three races: 

- Half-marathon

- Marathon

- 10k

- Recreational Races

Still interesting that for longer distances men are predominating the event, but in the 10k, the stats shows that more women are into the distance. This probably do to the practicality of it and that not intense is required to finish a 10k. For that, such kind of distance are very compelling for this sector, but is good to see that more women are jumping into the sports, with probabilities that in the future will jump into a longer distance.

But in the overall men represents the higher numbers, but women are running behind this stat with high probabilities that in the future numbers will be even more balanced.

It starts in the heart of the city looping the city and the surrounding and all long the course there are people cheering the runners. 

My experience

Definitely a worthy experience. It was my first one and really surpassed my expectations since the event is not highly marketed outside the region. But is very well-known among Croats and is one of those must-traditional events they go as runners and teams because for most of them represent the last race of the season.

I went with a Croatian triathlon team - SWIBIR, and was a great experience, around 20 members attended the race and the environment was just great. The night before you can go for a carbo-loading dinner at one of the many restaurants along the river, or just grab couple of beers since is just the final race of the season, still all go and run with high expectations.

The city is packed of runners and you can feel the positive vibes everywhere.

For staying there are many cheap options like hostels, but reservations need to be done in advanced since it is a small city and capacity can be difficult to handle.

The EXPO

The expo is a mid-sized expo, of course there is no comparison with a major marathon, I mentioned that because sometimes people ask how is the expo and they have different expectations. 

The expo is nice, with local and international brands, and one thing the official shirt of the event is one the cheapest - just 10 Euro, and is an Adidas one, if you just compared with other event in which can be as high as 60 Euros

The medal

The medal is a nice but a bit small, but enough to represents your accomplishment and have nice memory of the event.  

In my case I ran 21k, enough for my come back in races. 

The weather was a bit chilly in the morning, but as the hours pass by the temperature starts to raise reaching a maximum of 15 degrees, just for a perfect run.

Along he course there is people cheering. Water stops are every other 5km, this is good to know since maybe it can be too long for some runners, but so far since the weather is not that warm is enough.

The course is flat, with some mild hills, but nothing to be afraid of and the race finishes in a city park full of spectators.

My time was 1hr 31 min, not a bad time, but not the fastest. I was among the top 20 runners and got a 7th place in in my category. Good for a come back.