On April 28, 2014 the European Union abolished visas for Moldovan citizens. This is really…great!!! So the running club “Sporter Run” decided to kill two birds with one stone: run an 80 km relay race Chisinau- Leuseni and become the first citizens of Moldova holding biometric passports who will cross the border visa-free.
There were seven of us: Dmitri Voloshin, Liviu Croitoru, Andrey Khokhlov, Andrey Matkovsky, Vadim Zhelyaskov, Denis Kirilyuk and Alexander Mynza.

We started the race on April 27 at 1 pm from the central square of Chisinau. We ran in pairs, changing every 10 km. The toughest athletes ran 20 km at one go. We ran the last 10 K all together in complete darkness and in high spirits.

The whole marathon was streamed live online at www.play.md, to show that there is nothing impossible for a man, even if you have to run an 80 km marathon together with some crazy athletes like you! 

We reached Leuseni customs point closer to midnight. At 00:01 we showed our passports to the customs officers and crossed the border! It means that on April 28 at 00:00 the law came into force, with no delay.
We did it! We ran an 80 km marathon and were the first who crossed the border with biometric passports! Hip Hip Hooray!!! So, pour the champagne! 

Now let’s sum up the results.
During the marathon we consumed:
1. 5 kg of bananas
2. 20 liters of water- each athlete used about 2 liters of water for drinking and pouring it over the head.
3. We burned about 23,000 kcal (!) in total which is approximately -2,5 kg of fat.
4. And we didn’t spend any time or money on getting a visa.

P. S. The running club “Sporter Run” organizes long-distance races every weekend. So, join us!

Distances covered during the relay race: Liviu Croitoru- 40 km, Dmitri Voloshin- 37 km, Andrey Matkovsky- 30 km, Andrey Khokhlov- 30 km, Vadim Zhelyaskov- 20 km, Denis Kirilyuk- 15 km.

This is how it was!!