The last and biggest Serbia Business Run this year was held yesterday, September 21. Over 7,500 participants from 346 companies filled the track at Ada Ciganlija, but despite so many runners we managed to be in the first third of the results list as a team.
The forecast bad weather and the downpour that hit us when we started the race did not cause any team member to give up. On the contrary, the desire to participate and dominate on the field was even stronger.
Number 13 brought us luck, because that’s how many Heliant employees ran the entire 5km race and contributed to Heliant taking the decent 104th place out of a total of 346 participating companies. The male part of the team, which was more numerous this time, is the most responsible for this result.
The best of the best was Nikola Joksimović, who had an enviable pass time – 22 minutes and 13 seconds, but modestly hid behind the name of his colleague Milan Simonović. Namely, there was a certain omission, and Nikola did not have his number, which is why his colleague Milan came out to meet him and lent him his number. With all that, Nikola got the nickname Milanče, as his colleagues called him during the entire race. Due to the whole confusion, Milan Simonović’s time was not recorded, but according to subjective estimation it is around 30 minutes.
Shortly after Nikola (Milanče), Nemanja Gružanić (25:21) and Boban Mladenović (26:07) crossed the finish line, completing our top three in this race. Great results were also achieved by Bojan Beuković with the pass time of 28:03 and Jovan Đurđević (32:13), then Nemanja Vuletić with a round time of 35:00, and Stevan Tončić (35:29) just half a minute after him. Marko Adam still remained consistent with his pace, and as a captain he did not want to create competition for his team, so he crossed the finish line with dignity in 46:49.
The four ladies were also persistent on their way to the finish line. The fastest was Milena Stanojević, who had an excellent time of 35 minutes and 29 seconds, while Dušica Cakić and Ana Stefanović crossed the finish line side by side after full 40 minutes. Isidora Adam faithfully followed the pace of the captain, so they finished the race at the same time.
On the second half of the path, the runners slowed down for a moment and stopped to take pictures of the rainbow, which lit up all of us and helped us enjoy the race even more.
We all had a great motivation to beat personal records, which we succeeded in, which is what we are most proud of. This time we missed the fans, but even though they were not with us on the field, they cheered us on from a distance and were with us with all their hearts. After the race, there was a party and a concert by Marko Louis, and of course we had energy for dancing.
The race on Ada Ciganlija was the fourth and also the last in a row this year, so we have a well-deserved break until next year. Nevertheless, we will strive to keep fit and be even better and more numerous in the next races.