The Marathon Archives
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30 YEARS OF WARSAW MARATHON 1979-2008
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1979
| The official name: |
THE PEACE MARATHON |
| The date: |
30 September 1979 |
| Finishers: |
1861, including 59 women (3.2%) |
| Winners: |
Men:
1. Kazimierz Pawlik (Legnica) - 2:11:34
2. Józef Stefanowski (Białystok) - 2:11:34
3. Ryszard Ligarski (Opole) - 2:12:24
Women:
1. Renata Pentlinowska (Gdańsk) - 2:51:38
2. Ewa Wrzosek (Szczecin) - 2:59:15
3. Vlasta Rulcova (Czechosłowacja) -3:08:19
The length of the course was probably 40.6 K |
| Results: |
Time of the middle finisher - 3:49:51 |
| Foreigners: |
Total - 16 (0.9% of all runners) Holland - 6, East Germany - 5, Czechoslovakia - 4, Canada - 1 |
On the last day of September 1979 for the first time ever Poland staged an open, mass marathon race. The first marathons in Berlin or New York attracted roughly a hundred runners. In Warsaw as many as 1861 marathoners finished the city's debut. This was the largest European marathon in 1979! These numbers were mostly the result of the efforts of Mr. Tomasz Hopfer - a TV journalist and a former member of a 4x400 national champion relay, who turned into a television star. He used his natural charm to get thousands of Poles to jump in their tracksuits and jog.
 The people who had undertaken to put together the event had to face a major obstacle - how to convince the communist officials that this crowd is not going to turn into riots and anti-communist demonstration. Zbigniew Zaremba, the first race director, and Józef Węgrzyn - a journalist (who also chose to run the marathon and completed it in a decent 3:17:35) - did what they were supposed to do. The times clocked by the top finishers were amazing! The winner, Kazimierz Pawlik, clocked 2 hours 11 minutes and 34 seconds! However, it turned out after the race that the course was slightly (a mile...) short. And all this in spite of two cars used for the measure as well as a laser pistol.
The prizes in that year were unusual - paintings of Poland's greatest contemporary artists (including Starowieyski and Hasior). The winners were not very happy with this kind of rewards, but now these pieces of art are priceless.
The race created a great enthusiasm among the inhabitants of the suburbs, through which the course was drawn. They brought out buckets of water, tea, cofee and even - then rare and hard to get - chocolate.
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1980
| Official name: |
II PEACE MARATHON |
| The date: |
14 September 1980 |
| Finishers: |
2289 total, 70 women (3,1%) |
| Winners: |
Men :
1. Jerzy Gros (Zabrze) - 2:22:12
2. Jerzy Skarżyński (Szczecin) - 2:22:29
3. Ryszard Całka (Warszawa) - 2:22:39
Women:
1. Anna Bełtowska (Kraków) - 3:05:14 (the national record)
2. Zofia Turosz (Nowa Sarzyna) - 3:19:40
3. Lucyna Rokitowska (Brzeg) - 3:23:08 |
| Results : |
Time of the middle finisher - 3:56:26 |
| Foreigners: |
Together - 9 (0,4% of all runners)
Czechoslovakia - 3, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Panama, West Germany, USA - 1. |
It was September 14, 1980. Merely 2 weeks earlier the August Agreements in the Gdansk Shipyard were signed. The Poles breathed kind of differently. And in front of the National Stadium in Warsaw a crowd of 2 and a half thousand gathered, signaling trouble. The point was they did not feel like stepping back to the start line. Tomasz Hopfer - the charismatic promoter of the race, was begging: Folks, step back or we can't shoot the gun! And again: Folks, step back or we'll end up having problems!
Moments later the shot rang out and the crowd started to move. They followed the same route as 12 months before. This time, however, it was properly measured.
The elite field was even stronger than in the debut and the number one favorite was the then-national-record holder - Jerzy Gros. Who would think then that they would have to wait another 25 years for the next current record holder to run the Warsaw Marathon! In the closing stages it was only Gros and another Jerzy - Skarżyński - who were left in the battle for glory. Gros came out the winner and Skarżyński had to postpone his dreams of history for 9 years. In the female field the winner was Anna Bełtowska, who also set a historic - the first ever - women's national marathon record. The amateurs ran a usually picnic race but much better training and stamina could be seen at the very first glance.
Eventually, 2289 runners finished. How come there were so many? Well, after the opening Peace Marathon the media were keen on describing the runners' efforts and the lure of the marathon. It was the talk of sociologists, medical doctors and journalists. But the best promotion was the sight of the running crowd - who strove to prove something, come in Warsaw in good company or even earn the respect of their mother-in-law. For many it was a way to escape from the grieves of life in the communist country. Another factor was also the fact that it didn't take an adult to run the marathon. As many as 235 under-18's (more than 10% of the field) took part! One of them was Grzegorz Gajdus, who was 13, clocked 3:50:22 and finished 1024th. 23 years later he was to become a national record holder in the marathon. And the size of the field measured as the number of finishers remained largest in the history of Polish marathoning for the next 27 years.
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