Ruth Podgornik Reš was commited to extreme sports. An experienced runner and hiker, she gained admiration in Slovenia for completing the Spartathlon, a grueling, 247-kilometer ultramarathon between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta. She was the first Slovenian woman to complete the run – and ended up taking second place. Foto: http://vrtnarija-ruth.blogspot.com/
Ruth Podgornik Reš was commited to extreme sports. An experienced runner and hiker, she gained admiration in Slovenia for completing the Spartathlon, a grueling, 247-kilometer ultramarathon between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta. She was the first Slovenian woman to complete the run – and ended up taking second place. Foto: http://vrtnarija-ruth.blogspot.com/

Gardening and extreme sports may seem to be two very different passions, but Ruth Podgornik Reš’s commitment to both made her well-known in Slovenia, turned her into a role model for many, and got her nominated for the Slovenian Woman of the Year award. Ultimately, her relentless determination to push the boundaries ended up costing her life, but her memory lives on.

Born in the industrial town of Jesenice in 1963, Podgornik Reš had always wanted to be a gardener. After finishing her studies at the Biotechnical School at the University of Ljubljana, she tried to get real-world advice from leading Slovenian gardeners, but was met with resistance. The gardening community was a closed fraternity and she was an outsider.
Disappointed with her experience at home, she managed to gain hands-on horticultural skills in Austria and eventually emerged as a leading Slovenian gardening authority. She authored a number of books, which sold very well, and was frequently featured on the radio.

Podgornik Reš opened a large garden center in Slovenia’s Gorenjska (Upper Carniola) region, but her goal was always to do more than just sell plants. Remembering the cool reception she had once encountered, Podgornik Reš was eager to share her knowledge with the less experienced, and gardeners frequently came to her for advice. She famously compared planting seeds to planting love.

However, Podgornik Reš was even more famous for her commitment to extreme sports. An experienced runner and hiker, she gained admiration in Slovenia for completing the Spartathlon, a grueling, 247-kilometer ultramarathon between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta. She was the first Slovenian woman to complete the run – and ended up taking second place.

Podgornik Reš was also just one of two women to complete an ultramarathon across the Sahara, and the first woman to master the Slovenian Alpine Trail, something which only five men had done before her. She felt especially at home in the mountains of Slovenia.

Her exploits made her the subject of an award-winning documentary and a runner-up for the prestigious Slovenian Woman of the Year Award in 2011.

Then, in December 2012, tragedy struck. During a wintertime ascent on Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak, Podgornik Reš was buried by an avalanche. Her beloved dog, which frequently accompanied her on hikes, survived the accident, but Podgornik Reš died before rescue teams could reach her. Her life ended a month short of her 50th birthday high in the Slovenian mountains, which she had always loved so much.

Podgornik Reš’s son and daughter have decided to carry on her legacy. They take part in marathons across Europe, and in 2014, Miha Podgornik successfully completed the Spartathlon in memory of his late mother.