Welcome to the blog on the Istria 100 2024. This blog hopes to give you an overview of our experience ultra running experience in Istria. It does not provide in depth information on the course (Sarah was too busy running to be able to keep notes on that).
Race Profile
110KM (68.3 miles)
13,000ft elevation
Start - Buzet 07:00
Finish - Umag
Cut off - 28 hours
Aid stations - 7 (2 allow support)
How it all began
It was a sunny day in the south of France in August 2023 when we decided to do something hugely out of our comfort zone....
Back in the October of 2022, Sarah entered her third ultra marathon, the June 2023 Centurion SDW100 (massive shout out to the awesome Centurion community) to raise money for charity for her godson who has a life threatening condition and needs 24hr care. After 7 months of training to ensure she completed the distance, she did 'quite well'. It turned out that she was 'ok at this ultra running malarkey'. Subsequently, several conversations later about her race schedule for the next 12 months led her to signing up to the Centurion Autumn100, and whilst sitting by a cramped pool in a very average and quirky campsite in the South of France we booked our flights to Zagreb (£500 return for two with 23kg baggage each) with the intention of having a much needed easter mini break and Sarah would compete in the annual Istria100 (controversial for some, more on that later).
Fast forward several months and after lots of discussions about the fear of racing abroad in a competitive field, Sarah signed up to the 110km race; it was a wise decision.
Over the next few weeks, I sorted all the essentials to ensure we had somewhere to stay and a way to get around. Airbnb wasn't an option as we didn't want to be cooking our own food whilst away, so I went on to booking.com and started searching. As we landed late on Wednesday night, we decided to pick up a hire car from the airport and crash at a nearby hotel. The hire car we booked (through booking.com) was a Suzuki Vitara and with the insurance excess reduction it was £86 for 5 days. The plan was to stay at the Best Western for one night (£89 breakfast inc) , which was 10 minutes from the airport, before driving the following morning 3 hours to 2km outside Umag, where we had booked to stay at the Hotel Zlatna Vala for 4 nights (£360 breakfast inc).
Admin done.
Race week
Wednesday 3rd April 2024
When we landed in Zagreb at 8pm ish, we gave the hire company (GreenMotion) a call and they picked us up from the meet point at the airport within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the Suzuki wasn't available, so we were 'upgraded' to an automatic Skoda. This car was probably much better to drive! 10 minutes drive to the hotel from there and straight to bed for some rest.
Thursday 5th April 2024
It's a good job Sarah was now in full on 'fuel for the race mode' because the breakfast was epic. Hot, cold, fruit and meats. You name it, it was probably there.
After a monster re fuel, we started the 3 hour drive to Umag. We didn't go via Slovenia, which is the default way on Google, as that would have caused issues with our hire agreement and we would have had to pay extra fees. However, we planned to stop for lunch halfway in Rijeka, which is a large shipping port just off the main road. The journey to Rijeka was very easy. The roads consisted of quiet motorways with beautiful mountainous scenery.
We were only in Rijeka for a few hours, but it was enough time to grab some food and a coffee, walk around the port and people watch.
Fueling done. Next stop, Umag.
On arrival in Umag, we were blown away by the location of the hotel. Being located 2km outside of Umag meant that it was super quiet, and it was situated right on the waters edge. Our room overlooked a calm and tranquil, albeit cold, sea. We ran a short, chilled 4 miles along the coast to stretch the legs, and then went to the UTMB registration location.
The registration process and buzz around the place was pretty cool for a first timer, although I'm sure it wears off after you've done a couple. Bib number and drop/goodie bag collected, but no bag inspection by the volunteers to check the mandatory kit items, as is often the case at other events..... We stayed for an hour or so and watched the elite athletes being interviewed, which again was a novel experience, and then headed out for more fueling.
Friday 5th April 2024
Breakfast at the hotel followed by a lovely coastal walk past the Savudrija lighthouse, which was stunningly beautiful, More fuel, and bed by 8pm. Sarah managed a pretty decent sleep, although she claims it was interrupted. I on the other hand, was go excited that anyone would have though I was the runner and not crew.
It is worth mentioning how amazingly helpful the hotel staff were at preparing us a takeaway breakfast for out 4am alarm!
Saturday 6th April 2024
Race day
After 4 hours sleep, the dreaded 4am alarm went off. Bags already packed, shower, food, followed by a 1hr drive to Buzet (you can book a place on the bus if you want), the start of the 110km race. Now everyone who knows Sarah knows she loves a chat, but for that car journey, through the dark, narrow lanes of the Istrian mountains, she didn't say one word. Self-doubt, imposter syndrome and fear of failure (however that is quantified) had well and truly taken over. After what seemed like hours, and after avoiding colliding with a deer, the package (Sarah) was safely delivered to the start line. There was a carnival atmosphere in Buzet, with music playing, drums and people getting excited about the up and coming run.
7am, and 400 odd runners set off. The next time I would see Sarah would be after 26 miles and 2400+m of elevation. Whilst I'm not going to go into the race details too much, she ran an epic race, fueled well, started more conservatively than normal, and claimed up from 112 position to 42 position and 7th female overall. A decent race for a first timer and against a strong field.
Whilst I didn't run it myself (although I did run 12 miles of it whilst waiting at the checkpoint in Buzet, the aid stations we really well stocked with everything you would expect. The feedback is that the trails itself included lots of include through the woods, which were often slightly uneven and included gravel/small rocks.
So, if you are thinking of doing a UTMB event, ISTRIA100 is highly recommended by us. Beautiful surroundings and friendly people.
Whilst UTMB gets a bad name in the press, the locals were happy to see so many extra people flock to their town at a time that is normally quite. Umag appears to be a town that heavily relies on tourists visiting between the months of May and September. Many restaurants in early April were still not busy, even with the UTMB mob in town, and it left us wondering what do they do for income in the quieter months. Like with the UK events, there were awesome volunteers throughout the weekend. The atmosphere was epic, and the race was smoothy run by the 500 friendly volunteers. The race itself was affordable (I know we had all the extras but we booked it far enough in advance to be able to help budget for this...) compared to what other companies sometimes charge.
For now, we are looking forward to the up and coming UK running adventures, and getting back the awesome, chattier running community.
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