Saturday, 23rd July 2016, early in the morning, at 7:30 AM, in front of the Heroes Monument in Rosia Montana, with tulnic’s sound, we started the Pachamama Marathon together with Constantina Dita, our Olympic champion, who also participated at 10 KM Race. We were very honored to have Ms Dita supporting our Rosia Montana project, supporting this Marathon, a Marathon which was dedicated to the love of nature, history and culture.
The motto of our Marathon was “Din dragoste pentru România, istoria și cultura ei, Spuneți DA Drepturilor Naturii, pentru că natura este o Ființă Vie!” („Out of love for Romania, its history and culture, Say YES to the Rights of Nature because Nature is a Living Being!”), Rights of Nature being a project developed by Pachamama Romania in which we want to defend Nature’s rights in front of the injustice we experience in the present.
We organized this Marathon for the first time on 17th August 2013, and it was dedicated to fallen heroes in First and Second World War and to the love and responsibility we have for our future generations. We do this thing in the first place by promoting a message of harmony between man and nature. We want to create sustainable communities, where people will grow in harmony with themselves and with nature.
The day of 17th August , first time when we held the Marathon, had another important signification: it is the day when Constantina Dita won the gold medal at summer Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, at the marathon , a unique day in Romanian athletics history.
The event organized at Rosia Montana this year had 3 trials: Marathon- dedicated to experienced runners, with a distance of 42,81 km; Half-marathon – dedicated to runners who had a limited experience in running, with a distance of 24,52 km and 10 KM Race- dedicated to runners who prefer short-distance races/ beginners. In addition to, we also had a Children Race through which we tried to encourage more and more children to adopt a healthy lifestyle and a love for nature.
The IVth edition of Pachamama Marathon at Rosia Montana was a wonderful one, because of the number of participants and their friends (350 people), because of our special guest, Ms Constantina Dita, children from the Traditional Assembly from Bucium and because of all little runners who participated in Children Race, folk singer Magda Puskas, camp fire at Eugen David home, all of these creating a loving atmosphere, full of happiness, smiles, detachment and other beautiful emotions.
We lived a feeling of accomplishment seeing people who were satisfied because of what we offered them and because of the warm welcoming from the rosieni.
The road to the moment of 23rd July, at 7:30 AM, when we officially started the Marathon it was a long one. Many hours of work and many people who dedicated their time and resources for this event to be possible.
We want to thank to all of them for their dedication and involvement, all of them contributed to the realization of Pachamama Marathon! Many thanks to the entire Pachamama Romania team and to all the volunteers who joined us at Rosia Montana.
We want to thank to all local (Rosia Montana Police and Rosia Montana Hall) and county authorities (Consiliul Județean Alba, Poliția Alba and Direcția Județeană pentru Tineret și Sport Alba)which had trusted and offered us the necessary approvals, supporting us.
A great amount of thanks goes to all our sponsors– AQUA Carpatica, SanoVita, Therme, Canah, Apis Carpatica, Sponser, Bio Naturalia – for offering their products and services.
We also want to thank to our Olympic champion, Ms Constantina Dita, for her presence at Rosia Montana. We are very happy that you could come from USA for starting and participating at our Marathon. It was a dream came true. We want too thank to our friends from Bucharest and Oradea who assisted you, they were great and offered us very much energy.
We thank you, all participants who came to Rosia Montana for Pachamama Marathon, even if you were a runner or you just came together with your family.
This year’s Marathon had at its Start a family of champions, Teodorescu family. All their members, Lacramioara, Adrian and their child, Alex, won the trials in which they participated, Half-marathon for the parents and Children Race for Alex. By means of this article we want to thank you as well, for deciding to came at Rosia Montana and being part of our dream. It was a pleasure to have you at this competition.
Besides young athlets of 17-18 years old, we had veteran participants as well. Mr Ion Zaharia (77 years old) and Ms Lucia Radu (84 years old). Ms Lucia, participating for the first time at our Marathon, said she was very excited about the event and our medal will be her 103rd. We want to thank them for their presence and their example. Through this combination of old generation with new generation at the Marathon’s start, we want to transmit a feeling of gratitude for our parents and grandparents and of responsibility we have for our future generations.
We were so delighted to saw that people choose to spent their birthday running at Rosia Montana. 3 of the participants were celebrated Saturday and Sunday (23rd and 24th July) and by means of this article we want to say a warming “Happy Birthday!” to Roxana Corneanu, Birtalan Csanad and Stefan Salagean, the winner of the marathon.
In the evening, we enjoyed an artistic moment which melded together folk music with traditional Apuseni Mountains dances. In the beginning of the evening we were enchanted by a beautiful voice of a young girl from the Bucium community, area neighbouring Rosia Montana. Artistic program of the children continued with traditional Apuseni games and, after that, a 10-years old boy impressed us with his talent, performing many songs at taragot and saxophone, two pretentious and hard-to-play instruments for his age.
We want to thank them for their energy and their happines which enlighten our evenings.
What was next, was a total show, Magda Puskas along with her guitar colleague managed to keep all the people dancing, singing and creating big hora (specific Romanian dance where people keep their hands together and dance in sync) which covered the whole space of the cultural house.
Thank you, Magda, for your beautiful songs and for the atmosphere you created!
The evening continued with a camp fire at Eugen David’s home, president of Alburnus Maior Association. We were approx. 150 people who were talking about what we have lived along the day. But, Ana Daraban, our Pachamama colleague, made us a surprise and came together with Magda and her colleague. The rest of the night was all about singing and feeling good together.
That was the ending of the first day of the event, a day in which participants ran together with Constantina Dita, admired natural beauties, ate delicious food at Pasta Party (cooked by David Vlascau together with his assistants), sang and danced at the artistic moment and told their stories in the evening, at the camp fire.
The second day of the event, Sunday, a big part of our participants (approx. 100) went to visit 2000 years old Romans Galleries.
After this visit, we had a tour at the most beautiful natural monuments in Rosia Montana, together with Calin Capros, vice-president at Alburnus Maior Association, a local man who knows very well this area and its history.
In that group was, Stefan Salagean as well, the winner of the Marathon. For them it was the most special day in the year because it was his birthday. We sang “Happy Birthday” to him near Raven’s Stone, maybe the most beautiful natural monument of Rosia Montana. He will remember that day as a special moment in his life, along with us.
And, in this way, we ended the IVth edition of Pachamama Marathon at Rosia Montana, an event through which we want to offer to our participants a run in a wonderful natural frame of Rosia Montana, to have the occasion to reconnect with themselves and with nature.
Through their feedback, we understand that we achieved our goals. People were very excited about the beauty of landscapes they encountered on their route, many of them stopping for contemplating what was before their eyes and to feel the energy of the place.
The most emotional moment was to see the Rosia Montana Scouts welcoming the participants at the finish line. Alessia, Luisa and other kids were very attentive to welcome properly every runner at the finish line and they were truly happy and excited when they put medals at runners’ necks.
We think that the involvement of the children in this kind of events represents one of the most succesful ways in which we can teach them right values, in which we believe. As one indigenous proverb says:
“A responsible man is that person who plans for the future 7 generations.”
What we want is that the people who come here to get involved, to listen to their soul and to put together a foundation in order to reconstruct Rosia Montana.
We want to create a stronger atmosphere, full of joy and hapiness, so, despite running in the nature, we thought about organizing artistic programs as well, in this edition being present musical and traditional dancing moments.
Also, we want to learn more and more about our history, as a nation. For this reason we organized the Roman galleries and natural monuments tour with Calin Capros, vice-president of Alburnus Maior Association, who told us about places’ history.
Our dream is to create communities which will spin around a noble goal- a sustainable, just and fulfilling world. To realize that we do not leave in a separate way, but we are interconnected. Without what is around us, we wouldn’t exist.
The rain in the midtime of Children Race it was like a purifying energy.
We need to let go of our past problems and feel our divine essence, to be joyful that we are together and we can make something good for those around us.
We believe that our biggest treasure is the fact that we are alive. Let’s be happy about this and let’s ourselves to be carried in this mystery that is life.
In the ending, I will let you with 2 beautiful posts written after the event by Gabriel Bucerzan and Lacramioara Teodorescu, 2 sensitive and lovely persons, but in the same time, ambition and strong persons, who ran at the half-marathon trial at Rosia Montana: “Aseară trecui pe pante, pe la poarta dumitale / Să văd chip frumos, drag și luminos / Aseară trecui pe pante, pe la poarta ta cea mare / Te zăresc pe pajiște și pe lângă miriște / Au inima mea, ce frumoasă-i dragostea / Căci eu cât trăiesc, n-o să fug de ea / / Au inima mea, ce frumoasă-i dragostea / Căci eu cât trăiesc, n-o să fug de ea / – / Frumoasă-i Rosia Montană, când te plimbi cu o munțomană, peste munți se-ntinde ceața, chiar de dimineața / E distracție pe seară / Aer proaspăt, foc de tabără / Cântece vesele și zeci de zâmbete / Au inima mea, la bucla 2 este viață / Am servit compot și suc, alune și dulceață / Am servit compot și suc, alune și dulceață!”
(“Yesterday night I passed on the slopes, at your gate/ To see a beautiful face, beloved and bright/ Yesterday I passed on the slopes, at your big gate/ I see you on the meadow, near the stubble/ Oh, my heart, what a beautiful feeling is love!/ While living, I will not run away from it/Oh, my heart, what a beautiful feeling is love/ While living, I will not run away from it/-/ What a wonderful place is Rosia Montana, when you walk with a mountain-girl, fog stretches above mountains, starting from the morning/It is fun in the evening/ Fresh air, fire camp/ Joyful songs and many smiles/ Oh, my heart, at 2nd bubble it is real life/ I had compote and juice, peanuts and jam/ I had compote and juice, peanuts and jam!”) Gabriel Bucerzan
“Am trăit o poveste frumoasă la Roșia Montană. Locuri născute demult în jurul unui vulcan bogat care a revărsat strălucire și bogăție, ispite și neguri, filoane și fire, găuri și cratere, confuzie și o liniște prea tulbure pentru ultimii moți rămași să păzească stâncile cu clonț de corb și tăurile cu pești portocalii. Maratonul Pachamama Roșia Montană 2016 a spus tuturor participanților povestea locului, în sunet de bucium, în bătuta feciorilor, cu glasul de mierlă tânără a Magdei Puskas, cu bucuria blondă a lui Tică Darie, cu Ochiul lui Radu Cristi și inima organizatorilor și voluntarilor. Alergătorii au călătorit înapoi în timp, pe cursul apelor roșii, cu un ochi la traseu și altul la bogățiile fără de strălucire pe care Alexandra Postelnicu le-a scris pe medalii și pe sufletul nostru… iubire, bucurie, compasiune, recunoștință, fericire, iertare, pace, echilibru, prietenie, renaștere.”
(“I lived a beautiful story at Rosia Montana. Places born in the past around a vulcano which showered glamor and wealth, temptantios and darkness, holes and craters, confusion and an unstable peace for the last Moti,last guardins of the stones with raven beak and tauri with orange fishes. Pachamama Marathon at Rosia Montana 2016 spoke to every participants the story of the area, with alpenhorn sound, in lads’ dances, with a young blackbird voice of Magda Puskas, with blonde happiness of Tica Darie, with Radu Cristi’s Eye and organizers’ and volunteers’ heart. Runners walked back in time, on red water course, with an eye on the route and the other at the unsparkling treasures which Alexandra Postelnicu wrote on our medals and on our soul…love, joy, compassion, gratitude, happiness, forgivness, peace, equilibrium, friendship, rebirth.”) Lăcrămioara Teodorescu, The winner of the Halfmarathon (in centre)
By Alexandra Postelnicu, Pachamama Romania