“I think that’s enough for such an association in a small town,” says founder Pavel Karal, who admitted to Radioporadna that he hated running at first.

You have to walk slowly to run

“A few times I started running and then quickly stopped again. I was running too fast, I was sweating, I wasn’t enjoying it. Then I realized my choice, I slowed down. That was the turning point, I already knew how to run. And gradually, running became my needs, even medicine. I also love the fact that I reach places around Luža unknown to me and enjoy their beauty. There is no turning back now,” smiles Pavel Karal. Many other people from the Rozběháme Luži association started running in the same way.

Run of Hope for Expelled Jews

The Rozbéháme Luži Association organizes the Hope Run on the second Sunday of Advent. The road leads from Pardubice main station to Luže. The participants recalled an event that occurred eighty years ago, when Jews from all over the region, including Luža, were driven from their homes.

Everyone had to come to the Pardubice train station and from there they were taken to Terezín. What awaited them next is hard to imagine today. Only a few of them returned, unfortunately to a place where no one was waiting for them.

“And why did we run from the Pardubice train station to Luže? We wanted it to just symbolize that hope. We hoped that all roads end at home, not the other way around. That’s why we chose the synagogue in Luž as our destination. The event was a success, people automatically gradually joined in. In the end, we numbered around eighty people,” explained Pavel Karal.

“Many people realize that their exhaustion after running thirty-five kilometers is nothing compared to what the people they sent to their death had to go through. It is important to remember this. That’s why we run in the hope that it won’t happen again,” concluded Karal.