Team Jog On have supported The Running Charity through previous challenges, and this time took on a 400km self-supported relay from Ljubljana in Slovenia to Zadar in Croatia. The team completed the challenge in 37 hours and raised €1,000 to support our work with young people experiencing homelessness and hardship. Here, Emily Colquhoun shares the story of their adventure.

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Ljubljana – Zadar in 37 hours.

By Emily Colquhoun

It’s tipping it down with rain in Ljubljana as we sprint across the pavements to find an Italian restaurant. Rain splattering across the doorway, we huddle in like a flock of sheep, desperate to devour some hot pizza before our overnight race begins. Looking around, we can spot the sports tops around us, or the jeans followed by a glimpse of a sports trainer: “another team” we chatter among ourselves. The waiter gives us a performance, treating us like entertainment stars. Little did he know the show we were about to be put through for the next 37 hours.

400km of running cross country from Ljubljana to Zadar, Croatia. Overnight, eight checkpoints, and the rest? That was up to us. Van, logistics, strategy, route, runners, fuelling. 

Fuelled on carbohydrates, we set off  for a quick safety briefing. In short, “don’t be stupid and see you at the end.” Details about the Majstorska cesta section of our upcoming route were being passed around almost more frequently than electrolytes were about to be circulating our van. 

Majstorska cesta was a 21km section on theroute. It is completely inaccessible by car, covered in loose gravel, an extremely steep ascent of 5km followed by a severe 10km descent. We would be facing it 30km from the end; when legs, brains, arms and shoes were all exhausted. Not only that, we were likely to be passing it in the pitch black. Some teamshad gone early and carried outa quick recce; others had analysed all possible options on Google Maps. We like the adrenalin of the unknown.

Teams gathered and we hugged friends from around the world. We put on our CEP kit like it was our armour and the adrenalin took us to the start line. It struck midnight and we were all off: 

50 teams, 400 people, from Germany, Netherlands, New York, South Korea, Canada, UK, Spain and France. oluntarily, we were going on an adventure across Europe, completely unaware of what was about to come. We knew the events of last year, and the two things it taught all of us were: we are a great team and you cannot control or plan what happens during the adventure.

Those two things remained true this year. 

Within the first 12 hours, we had already needed to adjust our plans around three team members’ injuries and several unexpected van stops. Any blips were offset by the glimmers of standing on a bridge in Slovenia as a team, cheering Ben and Yasmine as they crossed it at sunrise. We had arrived perfectly for the bakery’s opening hours and as we all sat there, coffee and burek in hand, it really reminded us of what it means to be part of our team. 

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Joe, our designated driver and team strategist, was already observing the different team routes, when we had a sudden call from Arnie and Yasmine in the middle of a forest. We told them to keep battling because they were, after all, on our designated route. Just how fitting that route was for a bike though, they would contest. Marc and Joschka went to find them in the forest while Joe battled the 3.5 tonne campervan up a gravel track with a 10% gradient. The rest of us held our breath through the hill start. All that was left to do was wait. 

Kylie Minogue blasted through the camper van speakers and a beautiful view over the valley kept the rest of us in a happy state of naivety while Joschka, Marc, Yasmine and Arnie stumbled through the trenches of the Croatian forest. Some hours later, we were all happily reunited ; those that had been asleep during the whole fiasco stayed in their little bubble of peace. We boosted spirits during the reunion with apple juice cartons. It did the trick. 

The evening was tough: sleep deprivation, surprise steep gravel roads in a massive campervan,single track reversing, injuries, illness, and the “we still have 200km to go” feeling. We had to dig deep. But not without a team gathering at sunset surrounded by the Croatian mountains to enjoy pizza. It was then that we started to notice just how many loud barking dogs were surrounding us, some caged in, some not. This was an unplanned event that we didn’t just notice but had to actively detour between the hours of 2 and 4am. In the middle of the night, a team in front was bitten and the howling from the eerie darkness was not the most welcoming of noises. Luckily, we managed to safely pass through the villages of unleashed guard dogs. 

The sun was breaking as we reached the foot of the mountain pass. While we were waiting apprehensively for the Majstorska cesta section,  it turned out that the most dramatic part might have actually been the driving route that Google Maps directed the campervan on. Maps wrongly decided that a large stretch of tarmac road ahead was closed, so off we went off-roading: 10km of large loose gravel, steep inclines and sharp corners. Everyone apart from Joe and I were asleep, but we didn’t say that much to each other. We sat in silence, fixed in concentration and  completely unaware if there was tarmac around the corner or a 20% incline on a gravel track. We made it to the end safely, but won’t be doing that route never, ever, ever again. The climactic drive made the running of the Majstorska cesta pass seem very unproblematic by comparison. 

Andrew and Max battled the 21km section together as a duo, slightly disheartened by the teams who had mobile 4WD support cars to help swap runners and waterunder the early morning Croatian heat. In fact, they finished almost too quickly, we were all shocked that after 24 hours of running, cycling and (attempts at) sleeping, they had raced the 21km just as quickas they had done anything before. Perhaps the two most competitive of the team? The rest of us managed to find the much sought after lake swim, which is our team’s non-negotiable detour when planning the driving route. 

It was in the final 30km where our team vibe of, “let’s just have fun and see an amazing part of Europe” turned into, “shall we just give it a blast?”

We were absolutely exhausted, managing various injuries and it was already 26 degrees by 8am.We just wanted to be at the end. For the first time, everyone ran solo, weran as much as wethought wecould do on a rota. 800m at a time, 1km at a time. Google Maps directions were guiding us so that Joe could track the exact distance. Maps switched to satellite mode to find a layby. The rest of the team were screaming through the van windows as we passed our runner. We were finding some end-of-trip euphoria in passing teams so quickly, almost like we were starting to race, although we would never admit to it. As Yasmine set off for the final 3km to the finish line, we all met her in the final 500m to cross together as a team. As we approached the finish line marker, the clear seas of Zadar were visible beyond and we collapsed into team hugs before jumping in. 

There is something about this team: we pull through, we make jokes along the way, there are no (serious) sense of humour failures(until we’re all at dinner together at the end).There is a team reliance here, trust and so much fun. 

The adventure, the fun of it, the unexpected driving scenarios, the seriously, “Why are we going through another forest with a bike?” phone call, is just laughed off hysterically over Croatian seafood 37 hours later.

To do this, and to raise money for The Running Charity at the same time, is such a massive privilege. We have built incredible friendships that come together for this one event a year and it feels so special to be part of it. 

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A huge thank you to everyone at Team Jog On for once again choosing to support The Running Charity, and to everyone who donated. The team’s participation in the event was sponsored by CEP and Code & Co.

This was an independently organised fundraising challenge and was not organised or supervised by The Running Charity.