Getting ready to St.petersburg marathon

The last days have been pretty busy with all the work on getting to my 2nd competition in Russia for the summer/inline season.

2 weeks ago,I have been informed about a local big Russian marathon in St.petersburg, so I decided I'll go there and take a part of on the event, every event I'll join here would be good for my experience.

The Russians are happy that I come and consider me as a strong skater that can take the pack to high speeds.

St.petersburg inline start at 2010

After some check out about how to get to St.petersburg, I understood it's hard but possible :)

The marathon route is pretty hard, with a crappy road and strong skaters....But I hope my Israeli experience will help me on this roads.

St.petersburg marathon 2011 route



Obstacle no.1 - Electricity inner city trains



Obstacle no.2 - Cracks on the roads



Obstacle no.3 - holes in the roads

I got in contact with one of the organizers that speaks English and I got a warm welcome and huge help on all the steps, since I'm Israeli skater who will travel alone a huge distance (800+ km) I got people to meet up in each stooping point to make sure I got there and show me the next point, this was a very big operation that will get underway tomorrow evening.

I love watching my name in no.1 - too bad it's only the Reg page :)

I really didn't know if to choose 2nd or 3rd class on the train, I been told that 3rd class is not good but its a real experience, so 1 way will be 3rd class, if it's a nightmare than I'll get 2nd class on the way back.

3rd class sleeping train wagon

This is how it will look full with people sleeping on a 3rd class train

This is the plan :

Part 1 - At the late evening of 24/6, I will get on a train from my city (Kolomna) to Moscow, this will be 2 hour ride on the train.

Part 2 - In Moscow, I'll meet someone to take me from my train station to the train station to St.petersburg way.

Part 3 - At the early morning I'll get on a train to St.petersburg, a 12 hours ride until St.petersburg. (I got no idea how the hell to pass 12 hours on a train....)

Part 4 - When I get to St.petersburg, I'll contact some local skater to take me to the Reg place of the marathon.

Part 5 - After the reg process, I'll have to get to my hostel, 20 min in metro train.

 All this 5 steps, are just the way to get there, I'll have to do it all over again after the marathon, I just hope to finish with a nice result in the marathon.

I really hope that all my efforts will be worth it, I want to enjoy the marathon and the city.
And of course , I WANT TO WIN !! :)