The person who managed this unbelievable string of marathon races is Peter Macuh. He is one of the six runners who participated at all the nineteen Ljubljana marathons, each time on the distance of 42 km. He will be there this Sunday as well – he admits he can't help it, being addicted to running. It started while he was still a teenager. In 1981 he wished fervently to participate in the first Radenci marathon. "I was serving in the army in Vrhnika. I ran away from the barracks, the wish to participate was so strong." It seems that at the age of 54 the wish seems remains just as strong.
Ljubljana got a marathon rather late, in 1996. How did the runners, who mostly participated at the running events abroad, react?
It was quite strange. Marathons were organized in our neighbourhood – in Klagenfurt, Graz, Venice... We always wondered how is was possible that a run along the wire could be organized, but not a marathon. When I learned that finally a marathon was to be organized in Ljubljana, I instantly knew I would participate.
At that time you have already had a number of marathons under your belt.
I ran my first marathon in 1981 in Radenci, not yet 20 years old. I served in the army in Vrhnika and ran away from the barracks for that occasion – I wanted so much to participate. I drove to Radenci with a neighbour of the chief commander of our barracks…
How fast did you run in Radenci in 1981?
3:34, which was quite all right. I took 14th place in the overall standings. It was a difficult race, 27 degrees Celsius, and the track was rather out of the ordinary – at 37th kilometre it took us to a hill (Kapela).
Every year since then you have ran at least one marathon?
Yes, some years even more than one. And as I am quite familiar with the running scene, I am almost certain that no other Slovenian runner did run at least one marathon per year in the period from 1981 to present day.
There are five more runners who participated at all nineteen Ljubljana marathons. Do you know each other? Do you socialize with each other?
Two of them are my peers, and we have known each other for a long time, even before marathons - Milan Zupanc and Klavdij Maraž. But I must say that we runners are individualists… I became more interested in ultra-long trails than in flat trails. This year I participated in the race around Mont Blanc for the sixth time. The trail is 170 km long, with 10 thousand metres of height gain.