Peter Polák’s incredible 400,000km milestone accomplished

He succeeded in the period from the summer of 1971, when he started writing his training diaries. In addition to tireless training sessions, Peter Polák also achieved several remarkable sporting achievements. He has a total of 22 marathon victories, with his best time, set in 1986, being 2:21:26. Later, he also started to engage in ultra running and here he excelled, among others, by winning the 100 km race in Chavagnes, France (1991). In addition, he became the European champion at the same distance in Santander (ESP) as a member of team Czechoslovakia.

As a native of Košice, during that long period he almost never missed the start of the Košice Peace Marathon. In total, he has completed it 47 times so far, and if nothing happens, he wants to add another start on October 6, 2024.

Let’s go back for a moment to March 2, 2024. On this day, a special run was organized where Peter Polák reached the already mentioned 400,000 kilometers. To give you a better idea, this is a distance that is ten times the circumference of the earth and also the distance that separates our earth from the moon. That is why several friends jokingly ask him when and how he will return from this journey through space.

Peter Polák is still active as a coach and prepares several younger local runners. And he is literally tireless even in civilian life. Despite his advanced age, he still works as a locksmith in the workshops of the Technical University in Košice.

Readers and fans of endurance running are already looking forward to his autobiography, which will be published at the end of March under the title “Run, Boy, Run”.