He is certainly not one of these people who are looking to be front of the scene. Yet his simplicity, kindness and talent deserve that we present Iulian Rotariu, winner of THE TRACK 2019.
Iulian is a fireman, a job you don’t choose without looking at the others. Talking about marathon, some already deduce that the race is part of his DNA. A firefighter should necessarily be sporty! In fact, no. Iulian ran his first marathon – and certainly the hardest of his life – trying to conceal anxiety by running 9 hours around the Romanian hospital where one of his children, 3 years old, had open-heart surgery.
He had yet a healthy lifestyle but was not a competitor. After the operation, he felt the need of overcoming and chose to run the most technical mountain marathon in Romania. He admits having proudly finished… with no more nails on his feet!
For him, THE TRACK was “a wonderful experience, a way to overcome and break boundaries.” He decide to keep his smile, his motivation and preserve his legs for this first trail on 522km. “It would have been more difficult if I had considered the race just to be victorious.”
Iulian just competed with himself. He was just hoping to be a joyful and standing finisher. For him, it made the difference. While discovering the feeling of thirst in the deep desert, helped by the good will of the team and challengers, he humbly says:
“I have learned along with beautiful people that any geographical point can be reached and any human limit deserve to be exceeded.”
This human experience leads him to run now the whole Roadsign Continental Challenge.
A commitment that is giving wings
To learn from each step, enjoying meetings, never forget that life has priority and that we have share with the people we care about. Such a great program Iulian! A philosophy he faithfully applies being the ambassador of autistic children in his town, Botosani.
“Each time, I thank for being healthy and finish my race but often with tears in my eyes when I think about these kids I support and whose race will not end too soon I hope.”
Iulian Rotariu believes that we all will become aware that these little ones are ours and that it is up to us to make their life beautiful.
“I am sounding the alarm: they are here and they are wonderful! When I participate in races, I try to attract people to join me during my running to support, to help getting more complex therapy and integrate them into our big family.”
More than empathize, we feel a real understanding of their needs and a deep tenderness for these young autists when he tells that “we have to help these children in order not to cut their wings.”
Of course we endorse, whishing Iulian to overflow his next races for them and also for our pleasure! Iulian will be in Mozambique for the Ultra AFRICA Race 2019, from 10 to 14 November 2019.
