The 18.PZU Cracovia Maraton 2019 was our first marathon in Poland. Krakow was one of the first cities to be declared a UNESCO heritage site. It was easy to see why. A lot of the significant World War II locations have been preserved so that present and future generations will learn of the ugliness of war and prevent it from ever happening again.

We flew with Polish Airlines on Saturday, April 27, 2019. The first leg of the flight that left at 7:40 AM took us to Warsaw where we changed planes for Krakow. We arrived in Krakow at 2:15 PM. The bus to the main bus station in the city center cost 3,80 pls zlt and took an hour. From there, it was a short walk to the beautiful Balthazar Design Hotel.

I booked us a one-bedroom suite at the hotel but I didn’t expect us to actually have two luxurious rooms to ourselves. The freebies were fantastic! I need to remember to book Room 202 in case we decide to run this race again.

We picked up the race bib first.

The registration fee included access to the pasta party.

Th afternoon was spent walking around the historic center.

We returned to the hotel to explore our second room.

We were up early to be ready for the race that started at the historic center. The race had a time limit of six hours.

I passed the 10K mat at 1:12:58, the half marathon mat at 2:35:47, the 30K mat at 3:51:39, the 40K mat at 5:18:36, and finally the finish line at 5:37:17.

We indulged and paid 100 pls zlt cab going back to the airport. We flew to Warsaw at 18:05, then onward to Brussels, arriving at 10:05 PM.