✍️ Tadej Maligoj
Interview: Ožbej Marc
February 2026
Ožbej has been part of UTVV since the very beginning — practically a founder. Not a frontman, but a reference point: the person who, when a new idea or challenge appears, helps decide the direction and the solution. In the build-up to the event, he is responsible for course design and marking.
How much is enough — and when are there too many markers? What trend do you see in trail course marking?
We’re constantly upgrading the way we mark the course. Ten years ago we mainly used construction tape; today we almost exclusively use reusable marking tape. The tape has reflective “cat’s eyes” and is increasingly replacing small flags, which are easier to lose, step on, or move. That matters to us, also because of our relationship with nature.
Where the trail is a single obvious singletrack, we stay rational with marker density — just enough so you can see one marker from the next. Our main focus is on junctions, road crossings, and urban areas. That’s where orientation is truly the hardest for runners.
Ideally, the person marking the course puts themselves in the runner’s shoes. From that perspective, marking is a craft you learn through a combination of racing experience and hands-on work on the ground. Only through your own experience can you judge what works and what doesn’t. In trail running there are as many variables as there are kilometres.
From the organiser’s side, it’s ideal when a local marks their home sector. Over years of repetition and experience on the same section, they learn the terrain in detail and feel the best line through it.
One thing that’s harder to fully “feel” when marking — but absolutely must be considered — is this: after many hours of effort, a runner’s cognitive abilities drop. Toward the end of long trail races, we therefore place markers more densely. For example, the section from Hieronim toward Pleša is always marked more richly. Fatigue, darkness, and ideally also fog and rain… when a runner is in survival mode, every single marker becomes a friend.
Of course, it still happens that someone misses the path despite all the markings — but in reality it’s not that common. The ones who most often make a wrong turn are fast runners on shorter distances: 60 km and under.
Who actually marks the course? Most people think the tapes just appear by themselves.
We have an established team of 25 course markers across 12 sectors. Marking happens throughout the entire last week before the event. The math is simple: a marker covers on average about 2 kilometres per hour, which for just over 200 kilometres of routes adds up to around 400 hours.
On top of that, we spend another 100 hours on checking and fixing more demanding points on specific sections. We place 6,500 tapes and flags, 250 direction signs, and 120 additional warning signs. It’s not exactly a one-afternoon job.
Marking itself isn’t physically that hard. The real challenge is time pressure — and the fact that bad weather doesn’t stop the marking team either. We stick to the plan even if it’s pouring rain or snowing. You need a lot of strong will and good spirit.
But the reward is real: when locals invite you into their home and wish you well. Course crews are the messengers of the event — and most people in the valley genuinely look forward to it. We also do work that benefits everyone: each year we trim and clear around 30 kilometres of trail before we can even begin marking it.
After all that effort, it’s frustrating when part of the marking simply disappears. It still stings — even when you know it’s part of the game and you try not to take it too personally.
There’s much less of that than there used to be. The more known the event is in a certain area, the less it happens. People accept our race better and see that it doesn’t harm anyone. There are only a few sections where incidents repeat. Today we have better control and usually catch issues before the first runners arrive.
Are you ever tempted to remove GPX, reduce the number of markers, and make the race more of a navigation challenge? Do too many markers ruin the “adventure” feeling?
No. We want our event to be friendly to as many runners as possible. Of course, we recommend that everyone studies the course in advance: aid station layout, key junctions, the overall flow. But we don’t require scout-level navigation skills.
Let anyone who wants a great trail race come and take the opportunity to stand on the start line alongside champions — runners who can hold an unbelievable 10 km/h pace regardless of the elevation profile. It’s completely fine if UTVV is someone’s first-ever trail race. Try it. Test yourself. If it doesn’t work, figure out why and come back stronger.
As for GPX navigation: I see it as a useful tool. It’s a skill many people benefit from outside races too. Of course it makes no sense to run the entire time staring at your wrist — the markers are placed so that you can manage without it.
But anyone can drift off the marked line. And when you no longer see markers, that becomes a big problem. The track on your watch can quickly show you at least the direction in which to search for the correct path. That said, everyone should understand the limits of GPX devices: they’re not 100% reliable all the time, and we all know how fast a battery can die.
Instructions for runners: the organiser writes them, the runner skips them.
UTVV has an excellent race guide — but in my opinion most runners don’t read it carefully enough. That’s why misunderstandings happen, especially around mandatory equipment.
If we say a winter package is mandatory over Nanos, we know exactly why we say it. The statistics for dropouts due to hypothermia at the hut on Pleša — just a few kilometres from the finish — are brutally clear. There can be no compromises there. Safety comes first.
If I could give one single piece of advice: a crisis will come during the race, guaranteed — and it helps to have a protocol ready to get through it. A special treat that brings back the feeling that the world is still a beautiful place. And a plan for one hour of fighting through pain — because after a certain amount of time, the crisis usually passes.
If a DNF happens anyway, it’s most often the result of starting too fast. Our course profile looks friendly — but in reality it’s a race without discounts. Senza sconti, as our neighbours would say.
