Blue Race

Race strategy

Short race: go all out.

• Hold your race pace up to 6.6km, but stay in control.
• Ease into the early runnable section, then run your race pace, and go all out on the final descent from 6.6km.
• Start · 0.0km–1.6km · Race-day nerves push your heart rate up: don't follow the crowd, find your own rhythm.
• Work · 1.6km–6.6km · Climb of 174m, high point 430m. This is where the race is built: steady, solid effort. Climb by heart rate or breathing, not pace. Running pays off here: run wherever you can.
• Home · 6.6km–9.5km · Descent of 232m averaging 8%. Kick for the line: give it everything you've got.

Course

By gradient, 46% of the distance is uphill, 43% downhill and 12% flat. The longest climb runs 1.2km at an average 14.6% grade (174m of vertical). The longest descent runs 2.9km at an average 8.0% grade (232m of vertical). The steepest climb averages 31.0% over 0.3km. The steepest descent drops at 17.4% over 0.6km. Surface: 78% trail and 14% smooth. Flat-equivalent effort: 13.2 FlatKM.

Poles

The course is runnable enough that trekking poles are not needed.

Quad damage

There is too little runnable descent to damage the quads: plan the race around climbing and fuelling.

• Ease into the early runnable section, then run your race pace, and go all out on the final descent from 6.6km.

Results

348 finishers completed the 2024 edition. Men's winner: Đuro Borbelj (Serbia) in 49:07. Women's winner: Sanja Despotovic (Serbia) in 1:07:32.