The opportunity to practice aikido for 24 hours, to meet new people and to move your mind and body to the next level - this and much more is International 24-hour Aikido Marathon under auspice of International Aikido Federation. This year the Marathon will take place on the 6th of October in Košice, Slovakia, and the classes of the event will be held by 14 teachers from seven European countries and many different aikido organizations. Will you accept the challenge?

Imagine: The seminar starts on Saturday morning. There are a hundred people on the tatami. You practice for 45 minutes and then you have a some minutes break, then another 45 minutes class, a short break, and another and another. The rhythm of the practice is fine, people around you are also enthusiastic. After some hours there is a longer pause so that you can eat something and joke with a guy you met that day on the tatami, and then you both return to the tatami for some more aikido. And it goes like that, on and on - a long day and a longer night with just moments of sleep.

As time goes by, the smiles fade but the light in the eyes sparkles. Everybody is moving slower, because tiredness is replaced by fatigue. Crisis comes and goes. Maybe you have to skip a class. But then you come back to Keiko, because there are still people on the mat and you like to enjoy aikido with them. So you practice more. At one point, your exhaustion is gone and some kind of strange flow appears from inside of you and then you just move as if you were surfing the flow. Suddenly the sun rises, there is Sunday morning and the last class is over. Everybody is sitting on the mat with silly happy smiles, tired and puzzled. Did we really make it? The Marathon is over but its impact on people will show for days and weeks after. The event changed us from inside.

The Marathon is very intense, yet very open and friendly. It is facilitated by many teachers from several European countries and different aikido organizations. The teachers are cooperating in keeping the flow of the long and tiring training, they offer and exchange inspiration, building the atmosphere of joint development. And of course, when the teachers are not teaching a class, they are practicing as everybody else.

I do my best to describe this exceptional event but the experience is much deeper than any words. I went through the Marathon two times. I have seen teenagers laughing and challenging each other if they make full 24 hours. And I have also seen mature aikidokas in their 50's taking class after class to seriously explore their aikido as well as their physical limits. I am sure that any committed aikidoka can benefit from this special event.

And of course, you can have your own breaks, a longer sleep, your own rhythm of the event. The International 24-hour Aikido Marathon is not a competition - it is an exceptional opportunity to experience yourself deeper than usual. To bathe in aikido, to soak with aikido, to blend with aikido mentally and physically. It is an opportunity to move your mind and body to the next level, whatever grade you are. And also - to have a lot of fun and find new friends.

The 24-hour Aikido Marathon is concentrated aikido practice. Will you join us this year?