I have been in love with running for a long time, but all my attempts failed due to one simple reason: I did not own proper shoes. I had shabby ones, which were not good even for walking, then I had „proper“ ones, but nobody told me, that you have to buy shoes one size bigger for running. I ran and had calluses and every attempt had to stop. I read a lot about running and came to a conclusion to try minimalistic shoes. I got much better with them; so then I went to a local triathlon store for a new pair and for the  pronation/supination test. There I met Marcel for the first time. He was friendly, but he was very skeptical about this minimalistic trend. I bought a pair of New Balance road shoes, in spite of all advice Marcel gave me and went to France for three months.

Later on, after I returned, I came again to the store. We talked about training for an Ironman 70.3 and, because Marcel was an experienced coach, I decided to train with him.

But life was changeable for me and after few month I found that I was pregnant with my second baby and I took a break, but we have been friends since that time.

Marcel is a personal trainer for runners and triathletes. Also, he runs “Runpremio” sport store in Prague, where he and his team are ready to help people to make the right choice about sport equipment.

I asked him for a short interview about his career and how all that started for my blog and for my friends who are in this sport.

Tell me about your racing period and your best achievements.

During my active racing years I had an opportunity to work with successful coaches and experts in running technics, nutritionists and psychologists, who are also important in long races such an Ironman. Through that, I achieved good results in half marathon (1:17), marathon (2:47), Ironman (9:33).

 I know that you were a pacemaker in Prague Marathon. Could you tell about this experience?

I first encountered a pacemaker during my first race at Prague HM. I felt just one minute behind a 1:30 pacemaker. During the last 4 km he did an unbelievable sprint, so I was fairly disappointed. Two years later I was a 1:30 pacemaker on the same race and I did it exactly as instructed: 4:16 min/km. Then I was a pacemaker at Prague Marathon several times and the last time I was a 3:00 pacemaker at Prague International Marathon, which got gold label that year, the first gold label for a race in Czech Republic.

Once I had more and more clients, I decided to create unique conditions for them and since then I was a personal pacemaker for my clients, especially for their first races. Clients had a full service with immediate supply of water, nutrition and psychological support. This year I was a pacemaker at the marathon for a woman, who finished as the fourth Czech woman.

 I am very interested to learn about your experience with Asics. Can you tell me how it works?

Running expert is a person, who presents his country at special meetings, where we evaluate pros and cons of new running collections and decide whether to accept or decline them for future seasons.. I went to a meeting in Amsterdam from Asics and in South Korea from Adidas. There were about 40-70 people from different countries, who were recruited by personal trainers, top sellers and sportsmen. It is always interesting to find out what trend is popular in which country, what their specialists recommend and how is running developing there. I mean, while in some countries minimalism is only a starting trend, in others – they are back to cushioning shoes. And of course, it is an honor for everyone to be there and take part in developing and testing running shoes, which are going to sell the next years.