Pauza
79 days to 100 miles
The omladinska pruga (youth railway) was a post-war construction project that saw more than 200,000 young people from Yugoslavia and beyond build volunteer to build a 239km railway line from Šamac to Sarajevo in 1946-47. It’s a staggering achievement that, eighty years later, scarcely seems believable.
My late grandfather, John, was one of those volunteers. Aged 21, he had served on a minesweeper in the Second World War and was enrolled as a student at the University of Cambridge. During one of the summer breaks, he and some of his classmates made the overland trip to Yugoslavia to join the omladinska pruga.
Yesterday’s hour in the Common was my first run since Thursday 12 March. I doubt there’s many training plans which would suggest twelve days without running a step in the last three months before a 100 mile ultramarathon (or the month before a 50 mile warm-up race), yet that’s what I did and I’ve got no qualms about having done so.
I wasn’t injured and it wasn’t a period of post-race recovery. It was a pause.
Running is important to me, and often I prioritise it over other activities, but occasionally there is something bigger to focus on.
For a few years I’ve wanted to recreate the journey that Grandad took. On Saturday 14 March, my dad, uncle, cousin and I set off to do so, travelling overland to the Balkans. I got home two days ago. This is the summary of our itinerary:
Sat: trains to London, Brussels, Köln, München.
Sun: train to Villach, bus to Lesce-Bled, trains to Ljubljana and Zagreb.
Mon: Zagreb.
Tue: bus to Sarajevo.
Wed and Thu: Sarajevo and Pazarić.
Fri: bus to Dubrovnik.
Sat: the others flew home and Heather flew in.
Sun and Mon: Dubrovnik.
Tue: Heather and I fly home.
Though it turned out to be impossible to follow grandad’s route precisely (rail travel in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not straightforward), the trip is one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. The full account is a story for another day, and I’m still too travel tired to do a decent job of writing about it, but it was a special journey.
Sarajevo, in particular, is going to stay with me. One day I’ll write about it in a meaningful way that attempts to do the city justice. I’m slightly embarrassed that the picture I’ve chosen for this issue is a cliché, but I’d rather be unoriginal than risk being disrespectful by choosing a more attention-grabbing photo (eg. buildings still showing damage from the 1992-96 Siege of Sarajevo) that only tells a small part of a complex story.
Because we were travelling light, and I wanted to be completely in the moment, without thinking about getting a run in, I deliberately left my kit at home. It would mean almost two weeks without training, but it was worth it to be able to make the most of a one-off trip. Not too long ago, I would have been anxious about the thought of missing runs and losing fitness so close to my goal race, but I feel calm about it this time.
Unexpectedly, I think the pause may be beneficial.
Physically, it was an opportunity to recover from a gazillion footstrikes a week and the accumulated fatigue of pushing my training load up towards my upper limit.
Mentally, I had time away from having to plan runs and routes, plus a break from work stress.
Travelling is tiring, and this trip had plenty of moments where I felt uncomfortable (long distance bus journeys make me feel claustrophobic), but by committing myself entirely to the experience, without thoughts of running, I feel reset, if not refreshed.
Training notes: I’ve now got a week or so of OK mileage, with a 50k run planned this weekend, before tapering down ahead of the SDW50 on 11 April.
nb: Pauza, the title of this issue, is Bosnian and Croatian for pause. A highlight of the long, long bus journeys was when the driver pulled over and the conductor stood up, with his hands holding up ten fingers, saying “pauza,” indicating that we had a short break to stretch our legs, use a loo, or scoff a perec from a roadside bakery.
This is volume one, issue twenty-six of ¡Venga!, a running journal by Jonathan S. Bean.
Volume one: ‘326 days to 100 miles,’ documents Jonathan’s preparation for, and participation in the South Downs Way 100 mile race on 13 June 2026. The journal is published on Substack and as a paper newsletter sent by post.
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