“Gjensidige Roe buck” about to jump into its 10th season!
Text: Stirnubuks.lv
“Gjensidige Roe buck” about to jump into its 10th season!
August 22nd, 2014 marks the birth of trail running culture in Latvia – its members proudly call themselves “roe bucks” for a tenth year already! In 2018 journalist Gunita Nagle wrote for the magazine “Ir”: “Just as pagans, most of the Latvian trail runners celebrate the beginning of a new year in spring. However, this is marked not by the solstice, but by the first stage of the trail run series “Roebuck”. The anticipation of upcoming events is incomparable to those of Christmas or even Summer Solistice. Excitement often goes hand in hand with a drop of self-doubt – am I physically ready for the heights to come? But all of this is dimmed by the sense of community. It creeps up while you run around your local park or favorite forest trail. Its face is one of a fellow runner – you both greet each other by dropping a quick “Roebuck?”. The answer? Mostly “Yes!”.
The trail run series “Gjensidige Roebuck” is the biggest folk sport event in Latvia, which is celebrating its 10th season anniversary this year. During each stage runners, walkers, and from this year forwards also participants of the hiking distance without time control have an opportunity to get to know the most beautiful and scenic places and forests in Latvia. The “Roebuck” season starts in March and ends in October, offering seven different stages in different scenic locations.
The event gathers people of different ages who share a love for an active lifestyle and spending quality time in nature. The event is especially friendly for sporty families, as all family members have an opportunity to run in one of the offered distances best suited to each one’s abilities. “Roebuck” promotes a healthy lifestyle among young people as by organizing a school championship, which annually gathers students of different ages from many schools in Latvia.
After the explosion in the number of participants during the 2019 season, when on average each event was visited by approximately 4000 participants, making this running series one of the largest in Northern Europe, the drastic Covid-19 years followed with strict restrictions and a noticeable decrease in the number of participants in the following years of uncertainty!
“For now, we hope to reach 3000 participants per stage. And yes, at this point this is a matter of survival for us, as the technical costs of organizing the event have increased more drastically. On the other hand, we are sure that “roe bucks” are hungry for a run in the woods, and the sleepy ones will get up off their couches to get back on the tracks, as well! Nine seasons and 47 races later we can proudly say that more than 120 thousand trail runners have run around various trails, almost a third of them being school-age youth and preschoolers,” says Rimants Liepiņš, the founder of the trail running series.
This season is no exception to celebrating great friendships, so we are pleased to announce that “Gjensidige” continues to be our great friend. “Our team believes that one of the core values of our company is to courage to dare and take action. That is why we are truly pleased to be the great friend of this project, which encourages people to discover new horizons or run safely along the already beaten paths. We also want to remind everyone that the event should be not only exciting but also safe, it is necessary to prepare for it by starting training on time,” says Sanita Glovecka, manager of “Gjensidige Latvija”.
What makes this season so special?
After sitting out three seasons of downtime, rescheduling, and uncertainty, the trail running series hopes to return to its usual 7 runs full-season rhythm! Important news – the venue of the opening stage of the season has been changed due to technical reasons! The opening event of this season will be held in the pine dunes of the seaside, which will probably be a pleasant surprise for quite a few of you. The race center of the first stage will be located in the sports complex “333” in the Ropaži district!
Find the info page for the March 25th trail run “Pine-forest Roebuck“: HERE!
Anita Skudra, the chairman of the board of SIA “Rīgas meži”, emphasizes: “We are pleased that for the second year in a row, the opening stage of the “Gjensidige Roebuck” season is taking place in the territories managed by us. This stage which will take place in our Gauja forestry region will be challenging, rich in beautiful views and the diversity of nature at the same time. Embossed seaside dunes covered by dry pine forests will replace marshier wetlands in the depressions. The routes created for this event will be available for runners even after the event, as the company wants to preserve this place as an active recreation area.”
This year’s third stage in Ogre will not only be the first twilight stage in the history of the trail running series, but also the 50th (!) race of the whole series! The celebratory stage of the series will, of course, take place in Šlokenbekas manor, where the first trail race “Āžu hill Roebuck” took place on August 22nd, 2014! The organizers promise to make the distances of this race as close as possible to the 2014 races!
Appreciating the long-term commitment of the tribe of trail runners, the sign of the “Roebuck” tribe will be installed in the Tukums forests in the vicinity of Āžu hill, the production of which was possible thanks to the trail runners who donated the money through handing over the used beverage packaging to the deposit packaging machine during the competition. The sign is currently being created in the JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” Tērvete woodcarving workshop. There’s also a plan to create 3 permanent tourist trails in the vicinity of the challenging Āžu hill so that we can all enjoy this area not only as part of the popular trail run series!
The plan for the 2023 season?
25.03. “Pine-forest Roebuck” | Sila priedes (333 sports complex), Ropaži district| Race info page: HERE!
22.04. “Gaujmaliešu Roebuck” | Valmiera, Valmiera district
27.05. “Blue hill Roebuck” | Ogre, Ogre district
01.07. “OPekalns church Roebuck” | Opekalns, Alūksne district
12.08. “Šlokenbekas manor Roebuck” | Milzkalne, Tukums district
09.09. “Lake Raiskums Roebuck” | Raiskums, Cēsis district
07.10. “Sabile Wine hill Roebuck” | Sabile, Talsi district
See you in the forests! Very, very soon!