TEDxBratislava - Jozef RAJCHL -- Endurance in running and in life

Good evening, hi to everyone!
Hope not to make you tired, so you´ll manage to listen to other speakers.
I´m really glad I can be here with you
and tell you about, as Rasto mentioned, a bit different people than you´re used to.
Basically, us, ultrarunners, or the ones committed to running, do these things based on the same reason
as you being here:
collecting inspirations to move forward.
I´m a fan of travelling by the oldest vehicle- by foot,
to get from point A to the point B, to use rather foot than public transport.
And when I realise that I managed to pass 4 crossroads about 5 minutes earlier than the bus
and see those squeezing and sweating people to get off the bus and I have the smile all over my face...
I recommend to run from bus stop to bus stop and you´ll see you´ll spare time
as well as have the inspiration to see what is all happening around.
Here are some shots from my expeditions.
I started running pretty late
around my 20-ties. The age doesn´t matter, rather the experience.
I started with running after an argument with my coach.
I felt I need to show him I´m not just some guy with some little interest,
but if one has clear aim, clear vision, you can get from the point A to the point B a bit faster.
During my expeditions, either in Europe or Asia,
I have to admit, the person is receiving a lot of stimulus how to survive everyday,
how to recharge every evening to be able to get up and move forward.
For me personally, it´s the land that´s appealing.
The deepest inspiration I´ve ever had was the journey to Beijing that you could see on previous pictures
and, of course, the inspiration from the environment.
If you focus on the nature- imagine, I´m of a pretty narrow shape,
I´m running and besides me there´s a big car, as you can see in the picture, and when you arrive somewhere to Macedonia,
such vehicle is after you...
You find out what a difference is just here across the borders.
This is all the positive impulse taking us further.
As you can see, the life is not always ideal.
One is travelling usually alone, because either you do or don´t have accompany,
you have to move from house to house
with the fact that many travellers that have been or will be here, will always claim: local people are the most amazing thing you can meet.
It´s basically the pilgrim system, coming from one town to another, from state to state and bringing always some news.
I can also notice here that I give them some information, they give me some information back and I´m moving it forward.
When I mentioned the information,
next slide is about houses on Macedonian- Greek boundary.
It´s Roma settlement with approximately 8 000 inhabitants,
consisting out of 1 400 families.
Each family lives in this kind of house, very specifically built, but it´s a clear example that if there´s a will
and aim, if one wants to follow the neighbour or to have certain standard-
- he can get motivated, he can build something.
This information was being passed last year
in southern part of Slovakia.
A company was asked to provide material in order to build not as luxurious, but smaller bungalows.
If this know-how can be given and shown to people- look, you can live also this way- of course they´ll chose the comfort to have their standard.
And back to architecture, the human being, as it was said before, perceives, absorbes everything surrounding him.
In the pictures you can see Greece.
It´s a different mentality.
For sure you´ve been to the sea and know how it looks like in there, everything beautiful, green grass.
When going more into the countryside, you see also risks.
In my case it´s dogs.
I´m not a postman, I´m a teacher, but sometimes when I knock on parents´ door, the dog is after me.
The dogs see there´s a new element in there, meaning me- and the worst experience I have from Greece,
when 19 mountain dogs were chasing me
and it stops being funny.
In that case you cannot harm the dog, but you have to stay focused.
Everytime there is a solution and when it happened that my achilles tendon got bitten from outside,
I was done in that moment.
Someone from the residents got that dog, broke his skillet, so I managed to cross to the other side of the street.
These are the cases when you need to get further and „all the saints are with you“, and the one who is trying, always gets a help.
To hold on from day to day, even if it rains and it's raining now, too, when you listen a bit. The magical moment when running is not when you get to cut the finish line,
but you know it, every working day: oh no, again going to work, oh no the boss will want something again...
The endurance can be brought to everyday life.
You don´t have to aim for- maybe I´ll contradict with some of the speakers- high aims,but smaller ones.
Ok, I don´t want to meet the boss, so I´ll avoid him and by doing that I´ll finish 3 of my tasks.
Focus on short term goals. And the puzzle will be made, mosaic, very nice picture:
for example some expedition or you'll create some masterpiece.
By small pieces. That is my inspiration,
to get inspired day after day. For example, I need to achieve 110 km every day to get the furthest
For sure you´ve been doing 12-minute run.
Try to raise your hand who liked 12-minute run.
It´s a total minority as I can see.
You all know it depends on positive motivation, when grades are not it, role model of a teacher can make it.
One of my role models was this woman climbing in about 2500 meter about sea level, following the path to her hut.
When I saw how obvious she´s taking it, it pushed me forward.
When we mentioned comparing, this is the shot from Ural,
where our accompanying vehicle weighted around 3,5 tons, was armored and got stuck.
Afterall we got pulled out by functional old fashioned russian machinery.
Again, it opens the eyes that the simple things can many times save the life.
Plains, deserts- Sahara, Gobi or Altaj, as you can see in the pictures,
can make you wonder as when entering the cathedral. Comparison of a human with the surrounding.
Look, I´m here, it´s astonishing
and everytime someone comes, has the experience. But the fact you belong to nature is also something,
that you´re not an alien there, stranger, but you come in good purpose and continue to other places.
If you come with good, you leave with the good.
I met both, rich and poor people.
The richest guy I´ve ever met in my life is this custom officer on Mongolian border.
It was 6 am, we were following main road near the border
when suddenly a red ball getting closer to us. We were been watching what is it and suddenly a meteorite fell about 200 meters from us.
This custom officer was the fastest, brought wheelbarrow, put it inside and ran away inside his cottage.
He told me his boss got rich like that and now he´s in Moscow and has a big house.
He didn´t allow us to take a picture, we had to please him.
However, as you know, those things belong to the state, especially in Russia, he said he´ll use it to for development of the area where he lives.
It can happen that day to day a person becomes rich by various coincidence. For instance, someone works hard,
and suddenly some situation occurs, it needs to be used in order to positively move further.
For sure you know such pictures from travelling.
You can see there how my friend repaired flat tyre with patex, you gotta be ready to improvise anytime.
Also, I have experience from China when I got suspected I kidnapped this 16-year old boy. I got arrested by Beijing police with guns.
To get further- maybe I said that even 50-times –
no matter if you do some hobby, you should do it with enthusiasm.
Everything what you determine can be reached- to change the idea to energy that will charge you to reach the fnish line.
I believe you´re all here to get inspired and gain energy, maybe positively influence someone and get further.
Thank you.