Project Marathon

I was a very sporty kid. I spent countless hours playing all kinds of sports with my friends, and physical education was my favourite subject at school. I also played handball competitively, and we were pretty good. I regularly won Best Player of the Tournament awards, and we even became national champions.

Beyond handball, I was an all-around athlete. Whenever my school participated in a sports competition, I was usually there, whether it was football, basketball, running, or something else. I was, and still am, a short guy, but that never stopped me from competing. Being successful in sports gave me a lot of confidence growing up, and it is something I remain grateful for to this day.

Running was also part of my childhood. When I was two years old, my parents signed me up for a race in a nearby village. It became a yearly tradition, and I participated every single year until 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the event.

Looking back, it is interesting to see how my performance changed over the years. I started with short races as a toddler and gradually progressed to longer distances. The results below document nearly two decades of my running history.

Race history · 2000–2019View all 20 results +

Year	Distance	Time	Category place
2000	50 m	45.5 s	5th
2001	80 m	31.2 s	7th
2002	100 m	35.9 s	10th
2003	100 m	38.1 s	7th
2004	150 m	39.3 s	3rd
2005	400 m	2:18.0	7th
2006	400 m	1:58.3	1st
2007	800 m	3:02.0	2nd
2008	600 m	2:46.6	1st
2009	800 m	3:32.7	3rd
2010	800 m	3:33.5	3rd
2011	1,000 m	4:07.5	2nd
2012	1,000 m	4:29.3	3rd
2013	2,500 m	18:49.7	2nd
2014	2,500 m	16:55.8	3rd
2015	5,000 m	35:15.9	5th
2016	5,000 m	35:56.9	6th
2017	8,000 m	50:43.6	9th
2018	8,000 m	50:40.1	12th
2019	8,000 m	44:20.0	10th

Category placings from the archived results of Běh lužanskými hvozdy. Transcribed figures should be checked against the original records before publication.

Unfortunately, as I grew older, my physical disadvantages in handball became more apparent. I was no longer the dominant player I had once been, and the sport gradually became less enjoyable. Around the same time, I started attending high school in another city and eventually stopped playing altogether.

I replaced team sports with weightlifting. I enjoyed getting stronger and pushing my physical limits, but something was missing. Unlike handball, the gym offered little of the direct competition I loved so much. I needed something to compete in, a clear objective to pursue and a way to measure my progress.

I found that outlet in gaming.

As I wrote in another article, gaming gradually took over the competitive side of my life. For years, I invested my time in rankings, achievements and progression in virtual worlds rather than physical ones. It gave me the sense of competition I was looking for, but it also pulled me away from the sports I had once loved.

That does not mean I stopped training immediately. At my peak in the gym, weighing around 72 kg, I could bench press 120 kg, squat 160 kg and deadlift 180 kg. I think those were respectable numbers, especially considering my body weight.

Eventually, though, other things started taking priority. As graduation approached, I started a relationship and went on an Erasmus exchange. Over the course of that year, I stopped working out entirely. What I initially thought would be a temporary break turned into several years of doing very little sport.

And somehow, I never really found my way back.

Finding a new goal

Now, I want to change that.

I do not expect to return to the same weightlifting routine I had in the past. While I still appreciate strength training, I have discovered a renewed interest in running. It is simple, accessible and challenging in a way that appeals to me. Every run is an opportunity to push a little further, and progress is difficult to fake. Either you cover the distance, or you do not.

After reading Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins, I started thinking seriously about what I wanted to achieve. The book reminded me of something I had experienced as a kid: the satisfaction of setting a difficult goal and working towards it, even when the process is uncomfortable.

So I decided on a new challenge.

I want to complete my first marathon in 2027.

I am writing this on December 20, 2026. I am out of shape, and my longest run so far has been just 8 km. I have a long way to go before I can cover the full 42.195 km, and I know that getting there will require consistency, patience and plenty of uncomfortable training sessions.

But that is exactly what makes the challenge interesting.

I am not starting this project as an experienced runner preparing to improve an already impressive marathon time. I am starting from a relatively low level of fitness, rebuilding a habit I lost years ago and working towards a goal I have never achieved before.

The objective is not just to cross the finish line. I want to document the entire process: the training, the setbacks, the improvements and everything I learn along the way. I want to see what happens when I direct the competitive drive that once fuelled my gaming towards something physical again.

If you are reading this in the future, you can follow my training progress, review my running statistics and eventually find out whether I achieved my goal and what time I managed to run.

For now, I have 8 km behind me and 42.195 km ahead.

The goal is set. Now comes the work.