Bled, Slovenia - Noche 10Ka


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Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Bled
July 14th 2012
Published: July 15th 2012
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our goodie bag towel!
We arrived in Bled, Slovenia from Zagreb, Croatia on Friday, 13 July. We are staying at a beautiful mountainside hostel in Spodnje Gorje, which is roughly 6-7 km (3.5-4.5 miles) from the main village area of Bled. This is, arguably, one of the most beautiful places that we have ever seen. The Alps surround us and the village of Bled is located along the banks of a glacial lake, Blejsko Jezero (Lake Bled).

After breakfast, we set off on foot for the village of Bled. It was a beautiful walk that was downhill and took us 30-40 minutes. Upon reaching Lake Bled we noticed that they were preparing for some big event or festival. Come to find out, they were preparing for one of the most popular 10 Km (6.4 miles) races in Slovenia. People come from all over Europe to participate in the “Nocna 10 ka.” Details of the event: race begins at 10:00 PM – yes, that’s 10:00 PM at night; race is full up to six months prior to the race; 2,500 racers; course is two laps around Lake Bled on very hilly terrain. Immediately, we proceeded to find a race organizer/official to ask if we could
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Walk into town
still register for the race. He informed us that the race was full, but that they generally set aside a few spaces for tourists. We were told to come back around 5:00 PM when registration opens.

Given that there was a chance that we would be able to enter the Nocna 10 ka, we proceeded to the local running store, Koala Sports, to gather the necessary gear. The storeowner and his wife were awesome – we spent about an hour visiting with them about shoes, injuries, Exertional Compartment Syndrome, and the race. Wish we had this store and the same owners back in Michigan. Unfortunately, he was born and raised here and made it clear that he would never leave this area – seems to be a common theme among the people of the region. I think you will understand once you see the pictures. Gear in hand; we set off to find lunch and to swim in the lake.

Lunch was exceptional. We ate at a lakeside restaurant that cooks on an open-air grill. Sara had grilled squid with grilled potatoes and I had a grilled octopus – the entire octopus - with potatoes and vegetables. Not
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I love the colors!
only was the food amazing, but also the scenery was breathtaking. After lunch, we proceeded to the swimming hole that was directly below the restaurant. The water in this lake looks like the Caribbean; albeit, much colder. They had a big water slide that shot you out into the lake – that was lots of fun. Further, we swam to a lounging dock that was 40-50 yards from the shore. This was quite a feat given our swimming abilities, or lack thereof.

After 2 hours of swimming we made our way back to the registration area in hopes of getting more information on the race. Luckily, we found an event organizer who told us to find him at 5:00 PM and he would get us into the event! This gave us 2 hours to take our stuff back to the hostel, change clothes, and make it back by 5:00 PM. The hike back to this hostel is uphill and took us just over an hour. It was a quick change and turn around.



Once we got back into town center we found a place to eat dinner. During dinner we rooted through our goodie bags and
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Caution! Frogs!
kept the prizes and threw out the stuff we couldn’t understand. Although I (Sara) tried “translate” some of it but had no luck. All we could figure out was that the race started at 22:00 (10 o’clock!). Something was to start at 20:00 and 21:00 but we couldn’t figure it out. After dinner we killed time until the race by walking around the lake. We made sure to stop at the bank-o-mat so Zach wouldn’t try to while running. It turns out the 20:00 race was for kids.

At about 20:30 (8:30) it started down pouring! Zach and I jogged to get cover under a tree and then a deck of a house. We were absolutely soaked. While hiding out from the storm we met a backpacker name Jan (pronounced Yan). He had as much of a plan as we did except he had to set up his tent in the rain. Anyway…we are meeting him for dinner on Sunday.

We made it to the race area at about 9:15. The announcer was rambling things off in Slovenian and we nor our newfound friend Jan (from Czech. Republic) could understand. Finally, at about 9:30 the announcer said, “For the foreigners start walking to the start. Follow the crowd. It’s about a 10 minute walk from here.” So we start walking. After about 10 minutes we see a small START sign. We saw some people start jogging so we figured it was the real start. We start jogging too. Along the way we pass a guy in an adult diaper and lots of people using the dark woods around us as a restroom.

By this time we have been jogging 2 or 3 kilometer and come upon a huge herd of people and the REAL START LINE!!! Ok so much for understanding what the announcer said. Ready, set, go we are off! Of course we let the serious people knock us over to get to the front. As we are running Zach says, “I don’t see how this is going to be 10K to the finish line.” Well it turns out we have to run around the lake again! As we just make our first lap the winner zips by us! He finished 10K in less than 30 minutes! Anyway…we finished in about 1 hour 20 minutes. The best part was our finishing medal! It is a fork so we can eat a Bled, Slovenia specialty, Kremsnite.

It is soooo good! We didn’t want to walk an hour up hill back to our hostel so we found a hotel and had them call a cab. By 1 a.m. we finally got back and crashed.



This was my favorite day on the trip (so far at least)


Additional photos below
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Castle - first mentioned in 1011 A.D.
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View from our lunch spot. The best meal ever!
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Both of us pre-race
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a success story!


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