Anthropologist Jasmina Praprotnik met Helena Zigon while running. Over the course of an icy Slovenian winter, the two marathon runners got together frequently, and Zigon told Praprotnik about her ...life. Here, Praprotnik tells Zigon’s captivating story in Zigon’s own voice. Each chapter is marked by a kilometer of the half-marathon Zigon ran along the Adriatic Sea on her eighty-sixth birthday, shortly after losing her husband of sixty years, Stane.
Zigon’s life spanned most of the twentieth century. She witnessed the Second World War, the rise and fall of Yugoslavia, and the founding of the new state of Slovenia. Abandoned by her parents and having grown up poor and mistreated by her stepmother, Zigon demonstrates the stoic resilience of a long-suffering Slavic woman. Though beset with challenges, she found a source of strength in the act of running. From a young girl running errands to an old woman running in the face of new grief, running has been a bright thread braided throughout her life. It has served her as a balm and a joy—one that she is grateful to still be able to savor. This inspirational memoir will appeal to general readers, especially those interested in history and running.
At the Starting Line Praprotnik, Jasmina Kozina
The Long Running Life of Helena Zigon,
10/2017
Book Chapter
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY. APRIL 13, 2014. I’ve had quite a lot of them already. I am eighty-six years old and I am standing at the starting line of the first Istrian Marathon. For my birthday, I will ...treat myself to a 21-kilometer run, a half marathon. I can hardly believe I am so old. How fast the years have passed and how much everything has changed during that time.
I was born in 1928 in Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. King Alexander Karaðorðeviæ was on the throne. The first radio station in Slovenia
THE FINISH LINE Praprotnik, Jasmina Kozina
The Long Running Life of Helena Zigon,
10/2017
Book Chapter
I WAS THE LAST ACROSS THE FINISH line. But I didn’t quit and I didn’t walk. Not a step. It is my own fault that I didn’t run as well as I should have. I could have run the race faster. But I made a ...mistake by not holding back at the beginning. My fellow runners pulled me forward, and so I ran the first few kilometers too fast.
Certainly, I, more than anyone, know how important it is to begin conservatively, and then later, after the first half, if you have the strength, to run faster. So it wasn’t
