29.11.2018

Jizerská 50 at age 80? Jaroslav Haupt wants to again finish in under five hours

Can you imagine what you will be doing when you’re eighty years old? Perhaps only with difficulty can you dream of what Jaroslav Haupt is doing. Haupt recently celebrated his eightieth birthday and he gave himself the gift of registration in the Jizerská 50, where he plans to again conquer the 50 km trail. “Last year I managed it in four and a half hours, so I’m not planning to quit just yet,” Haupt says with a roguish grin.

4:32:16! That was the time that flashed on the board when Haupt crossed the finish line of the Jizerská 50 at the age of 79. He would like to achieve a similar result a year later. “I feel good, I’m training hard, I definitely want to come in under five hours,” he says with determination.  Everyone at the best age and in the best shape has a problem achieving that kind of result. But this long-distance athlete does not even want to hear about that.

“At my age, I can’t underestimate anything. I go swimming with friends twice a week and we often ride bicycles in spring; we have group rides on Wednesdays. There’s a lot of that. When there’s time, we go hiking in the Krkonoše. We grandpas are able to cover 30 kilometres a day,” Haupt says, as if stating the obvious.

Paradoxically, he is not bothered by his increasing age, but rather by the possibility of deteriorating form. “I’m seriously bothered by the thought that I would come in last and, God forbid, the organisers would have to wait for me. If I ever have the feeling that this could happen, I won’t be at the starting line. But I hope that you’ll see me at the starting line in years to come,” Haupt says.

And why not? After all, this year Haupt also completed the Marciolonga, another race in the Visma Ski Classics series. “I feel great. I can travel, race, do sports,” he says. His driving force is not only his adventurous nature, but also his forty friends with the same interests. “Everything is about the group. We have always gone to the Jizerka together and it’s still the same today. In the past, we even went together to pay tribute at the monument to the mountain climbers from the Peru Expedition right below Huascarán,” he says.

Even though he has never been a passionate collector, in recent years Haupt has begun collecting interesting race artefacts. “Somewhat by accident, I came into possession of a stamp from 1975. I have it on my legendary wooden skis.”

He will be able to get another stamp on 10 February 2019 when he stands at the starting line again in Bedřichov. 4:31:16, the time that he will attempt to surpass at the age of eighty.