Run Wisla Part VI – Logistics

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

After the excitement of the trip in May, with the start of the adventure fast approaching it was time to start organising and planning the logistics.

Thanks to some of our very generous friends, we had a support car (or rather support cars) for the whole “trip”. Three different friends were going to accompany us: Martin would be our support driver for stage 1, from the source of the river in Barania Gora to Krakow. Then Asia would take over and be with us for 2 stages, Krakow-Sandomierz and Sandomierz-Warsaw. Agata offered to do the stretch from Warsaw-Torun, and Asia would then join us again from Torun to the Baltic Sea.

On top of that, Patrizia said she wanted to join us as much as possible and take photos, and a few others had also expressed interest in joining us, either running with us or supporting. You can see the whole support team here.

By now, I had got some contacts in towns along the river who had offered to put us up as we passed through, quite a few of them thanks to Robert from RRW and some from other people. But we still needed a lot more.

We were also not having much luck finding a sponsor. I’d talked to a few companies but no-one was willing or able to help out. Our Facebook Page was getting quite a lot of interest, and the videos were also relatively popular, but honestly I didn’t do that good a job at selling the idea.

However, we did had some successes. Our crowdfunding initiative had done relatively well, largely thanks to a big rush of donors on the last day (and thanks to Pekka and a few others sharing information on fb). Sport-Guru had offered some help, and had given me some equipment in May. Ricoh, who a friend Nick had put us in touch with, were really interested in the project and although they said it was too late to invest anything, they did offer us a sports camera for the duration of the run, which we could use to take films. A friend called Philippe put us in touch with the water company Zywiec Zdroj, and I had set up a few meetings with them. This whole Run Wisla business was really feeling like a second job – but one I was happy to do 🙂 We did, however, drop the ball with a beer company that another friend Gary put us in touch with, which in the end I felt kinda bad about. I did had a slight concern about having a beer company sponsor an event like this, but really could have handled it a bit better.

With June approaching, I really wasn’t sure if we’d have any sponsor for the event, especially because, as Robert kept reminding me, we couldn’t give them a guarantee that we’d actually finish.

I had a chat with Andy about the costs and we agreed that in the absolute worst case we’d treat it as a holiday and pay our way.

Another friend of ours, Elwira, who was the first person to write about Run Wisla, helped us to organise a picnic on the day we’d arrive in Warsaw. There was quite a lot of work planning that, but I’d contacted Agata at Groole, Przemek our coach, Wojciech our physio and a few others, and with Robert and Elwira’s help things seemed to be coming together 🙂

I can’t emphasise how much of a help Robert was with the organisation. His realism and, at times, scepticism about the undertaking, plus his contacts, played a significant role in everything coming together, especially with Andy still away in South America.

Cool trophy for the Rzeznik Hardcore!

As for training, I managed a few ultras (including the Rzeznik hardcore 100km with Krystian) and started training more regularly in the gym with Przemek. The three days in May had given me a lot of confidence and I seemed to have sorted out the issue with blisters. So things were pretty positive on that front.

And so, as June arrive, Andy came back. I had a lot of things planned for his return … 🙂