The Story of the House in Hrabětice: We are driven by rivalry between neighbours

The house in Hrabětice that is located in the Jizera Mountains, which is inconspicuous at first glance has a presence of an unexpected number of active participants in the Jizera 50. Several of its inhabitants regularly participate in the race. The driving force is Pavel Citta, who annually mobilizes his neighbours. “It is greater fun from year to year because our ranks are growing. Moreover, many members always cheer us at the starting line and the along the track,” say the regular participant in the Jizera 50.

The locals always have great joy at the personal records they achieve and mutually compare performances. In the case of the Hrabětice team, the primary issue is not who has a better time, but the important thing is to get to the starting line and enjoy the race. But they naturally have a ranking of mutual performances and form!

The Hrabětice inhabitants have only a short distance to the starting line. It is precisely a walk of 4 kilometres from the entrance door to the Bedřichov Stadium. “It is also for this reason that we can get great support along the track. Our wives, children and neighbours come to cheer us. We have even already successfully drawn the youngest members into the race in the children’s categories and we hope that they shall follow in our footsteps at some time. For me personally, the first impulse was my father, who successfully completed the Jizera 50 ten times. But it was a completely different matter, start took the form of a mass start from a Hrabětice meadow, wooden running skis and sticks were broken, the skis were polished with whatever was handy, and you can forget about refreshments along the track. The race of twenty years ago cannot be compared with the facilities available to us today. Hats off to the competitors of the past. In any case, today’s Jizera is fun for the whole family,” a local athlete explains.

“We have posters along the corridors, we motivate each other at every meeting, particularly when the winter is drawing near,” he says describing the atmosphere a few weeks before the race. “It sometimes happens that someone excuses himself or deliberately starting limping in front of me saying that this year was out of question. But in the end, we meet at the Jizera 50 in an even larger ensemble.”

It is not so much about who will be fastest, the most important aspects are the experiences themselves. We thus keep our fingers crossed for the whole Hrabětice team.