Once it's in your blood, you can't live without it, you feel empty. When you free fall 1.500 meters, when you jump from a diving board 12 meters into water, climb a mountain, ride a bicycle 150 kilometers, run a marathon...
That's how Milan Petrović from Leskovac, one of over 500 participants of the Podgorica Millennium Run, who ran races from five kilometers to a full marathon, begins the conversation for "Vijesti".
What sets Milan apart from the other contestants is that he is completely blind. In Podgorica, he ran together with Ivan Radulović and together they covered a half-marathon distance of just over 21 kilometers.
They ran it in less than two hours, and they practiced, as Milan explains, "about twenty meters in front of the building that morning."
"We adjusted well, after ten kilometers we relaxed. I told Ivan how many kilometers we still have, because I have a watch that I wear and it counts down the kilometers. He was telling me where we were passing by - čevabdžinica, the famous burekdžinica, and I sank - I got hungry at the moment", says Milan with a smile.
He ran his first marathon back in 2009 and thus became the first blind person from Serbia to achieve this feat.
He is professionally engaged in tandem cycling, and he also tried parachute jumping from a height of three thousand meters, and jumping into water from a height of twelve...
I'm not chasing results, but companionship
A cyclist from Leskovac and a law student from Podgorica connected through social networks, when Ivan's post offering to run in tandem was seen by Milan's girlfriend Dragana, at Ivan's sister Vanja's. All four are engaged in running at different levels and categories.
The trip to Podgorica was not difficult for Milan and he remembered the trip to the Paralympics in Tokyo when he traveled for 12 hours.
"I said, what is ten hours by bus, no problem".
Milan says that he already "threw the flea" to Ivan so that they could try the "half-ironman" together, an extreme version of the triathlon - 1,9 km swimming, 90 km cycling and 21 km running, which he already managed to finish once. .
Recalling his first marathon, when he was 22 years old, he says he tried because he thought he could do anything.
Although there were challenges in that race, especially in the last 12 kilometers, a love for long tracks was born.
"I have no ambition to chase results, I like to socialize with people".
He still has results, especially in cycling, through which he traveled "half the world", and in Tokyo at the Paralympics he was seventh in tandem cycling.
If I hadn't lost my sight, who knows what I would be doing now
Milan's vision problems started when he was 11 years old and it took several years of visits to various doctors to figure out what was going on.
"It was established that it was eye atrophy, that the eye nerve was atrophying, but no one knew at that moment what it was from. I went for various examinations, however, I realized at some point that all of this was in over my head, I made peace with it and then I started on a different path", explains the Paralympian.
It was only in 2015 that it was discovered that he had lost his sight due to a brain tumor, an operation followed, but he returned to racing after only a few months.
The preparations for the first Paralympics in London in 2012 were serious, as he points out that he had to give up many things.
"When others eat pancakes with plasma and cream, I don't eat anything...", recalls Milan, but states that he was already ready for Tokyo.
He planned to rest for a month after his experience in Japan, but lasted only three days and threw himself into running and cycling.
"Once it gets into your blood, you can't live without it. You feel empty. "If I hadn't lost my sight, who knows what I would be doing now," says the Paralympian.
"When I'm already enjoying myself, I wanted to make it possible for someone who doesn't have the opportunity"
Milan's partner from Podgorica, Ivan Radulović, started running in 2018 with his sister, and now it is his side hobby.
This law student came up with the idea of running with a disabled person when he ran a half marathon in Belgrade.
"Even back then, I wanted to run with someone in tandem with us, but then I didn't have anyone to run with," explains Ivan.
He wants to repeat the experience with Milan, among other things, because it's very interesting when you talk all the time while running.
"Even then I wanted to stay with us, but then I didn't have anyone with me. And then my sister told me that she was going to inquire, and so she reached out to him through her friend, who is Milan's wife, and put us in touch," Radulović tells "Vijesti".
The race was by no means boring - at one point Milan was "pulling" Ivan, and then at the end of the race the roles were reversed.
Running together was not difficult for them, despite the fact that they did not know each other, nor had they ever practiced together.
"When you run alone, it's the most boring two hours... It's much easier this way, we talk, we didn't even think much".
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