Runners invited to climb Kalvarija or Šmarna gora
Tacen/Maribor, 4 October - Amateur runners will be able to take part this week in a night competition taking them up stone stairs to Kalvarija hill in Maribor, or in a slightly more challenging task of climbing to Šmarna gora hill above Ljubljana.
Maribor
A view of the city of Maribor from Kalvarija.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
Tacen
Šmarna gora, a hill above Ljubljana that is a popular hiking spot.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
The 8th Night Run to Kalvarija on Friday will see the participants running up the stairs leading to the top of the hill in the city of Maribor.
Runners will be running up the stairs followed by the light of torches and lasers.
"Despite the fact that the best runner owns an unbelievable record of 1 minute and 44.20 seconds, it is important to participate, not to win," the organisers say.
"Beating 454 stairs by running, walking, crawling or with a combination of the three is the biggest success."
Meanwhile, the 38th Run to Šmarna gora on Saturday will take the participants to the "most visited hill on the sunny side of the Alps".
The run to the 669-metre hill will also serve as the Slovenian national cup in mountain running and as a World Cup event in mountain running.
"With the inclusion in the competition calendar of the World Mountain Running Association at the end of the 1990s, the event was given a solid foundation for international promotion," the organisers say.