Florida 2017: Wings for Life World Run, Sunrise FL, 8 may

Wings for life is my favourite race. There, I’ve said it!

What is this race so special? A short story.

It happens worldwide, in around 20 countries and the start is at the same time, no matter the time zone. On hot or cold, day or night, rain or sun, everybody runs as fast as they can. There’s no finish line also. After 30 min from the start, the Red Bull car starts coming after you, driving 9 miles per hour (14 km/h) and slowly speeds up. When the catcher car catches you, you stop.

In this race, you run for those who can’t run. For the ones who don’t know, Wings for Life is a charity run and what you pay to sign up, a part goes to spinal cord research. There’s also a wheelchair run before we start, and man you see a lot of people with a huge power of will! You see people who never  walked in their lives, or people who suffered accidents, or people with no legs at all, but people that live their lives to the fullest and have great self-confidence.

I said “people” too many times, I know, but you get my point! 🙂

Race day!

I woke up at 4 in the morning so I could be at the location at 6 to pick up my race kit. I almost didn’t make it, because I left a little late and also my Uber driver made fun of some drunk guys while we were at the stoplight, so they opened the door and tried to punch him. I as freaking out I won’t make it to the race. Crazy story.

I arrived there exactly on time, I calmed down and went for the start.

I was in my Zen zone, happy. My favourite race was starting. And I had a goal in mind: to run more than last year, so that means at least 24km.

The course was perfect at the start, with the sunrise in front of me. And I was running in Sunrise county, haha, get it??

The rest of the course was nice too but I have to blame Florida for being too flat. There were no spectacular views except the a few lakes and the palm trees. And was hot, soooo hot.

I started strong with a good pace, but after every km I started to slow down. Half of the race I didn’t felt tired at all, just a little dehydrated even though I took a glass of water at every water station.

Here comes the catcher car!

The moment that car approaches,  you literally grow wings! No matter how exhausted you are, you always find energy to run faster, even though that won’t buy you more than 10 seconds and add a few steps on your final distance. But the euphoric feeling is the best feeling in the world. That’s why for me, this is the best race in the world! I love every feeling that I have during this. It’s simply awesome. You should try it. Even if you walk 5k.

My Transylvania t-shirt is not that visible there though, but here’s a closer look after the car passed me!

After the shuttle busses bring you back to the start line, you receive your medal. And it’s a nice one!

Here’s where I got back to the start line, to take my happy finish photo:

Past races:

My first time running this race was in Bucharest (Romania), 2 years ago.

Last year i did it in Bratislava (Slovakia), and now here in Sunrise (Florida). And I plan to run it differently each year.