Slovenia’s fastest female marathon runner was Barbara Trunkelj, who won eighth place overall with the time of 2:50:11. Foto: Osebni arhiv
Slovenia’s fastest female marathon runner was Barbara Trunkelj, who won eighth place overall with the time of 2:50:11. Foto: Osebni arhiv

Thanks to his exceptional result, Sisay Lemma was at the center of attention after Sundays' Ljubljana marathon, as was Visiline Jepkesho of Kenya, who broke the women's world record. But the results of Slovenian runners were also noteworthy.

Slovenia's fastest female marathon runner was Barbara Trunkelj, who won eighth place overall with the time of 2:50:11. She was the best runner among those who did not go under the 2:30 mark.

She received a flower during her run
She remembers something that happened at the 30-kilometer mark: "A gentleman told me that I'm the best among the Slovenian runners and gave me a flower for good luck, I also had my fans at the 35-kilometer mark. I was afraid that I wouldn't have many fans cheering me on after the first half of the course (runners doing the 21-kilometer and the 42-kilometer marathons run together for the first 20 kilometers), but that's not what happened. The atmosphere was fantastic."

The mountain runner does just as well on flat terrain
The 26-year-old runner has neither a club nor a coach, so her work is still officially on the level of top-flight recreation. She decided to take part in the Ljubljana Marathon just ten days before the race: "I have always participated more in mountain races, and I'm better at that, since I love mountains and slopes. Because the application process was closed, I got my starting number from one of the runners who decided not to take part. My goal was to run below 3:00, but I couldn't imagine winning.

Some of the runners couldn't believe that Barbara was in their group: "Up to the 21-kilometer mark, some of them still thought that I was doing the half marathon, but then they did a doubletake, when they saw a woman running with them. A lot of the comments were in the style of "You go, girl."

This year, Barbara Trunkelj has run a distance of about 2000 kilometers, very few of them on flat terrain. She even took part in the extreme run to the top of Grintavec and ended up second. And just over a month ago, she won the Red Bull 400 run to the top of the Planica ski jump.