Zemtsov's daily log: while I'm running, I'm living
59-year-old Andrei Zemtsov is the European vice-champion in daily running as part of the Russian national team. He spent his entire career in one organization - Tunnel Detachment-6, where he worked for 27 years.
1987 Zemtsov comes to TO-6 as a concrete worker, a year later he graduates from the Metrostroy Technical School and then, until his departure in 2014, works as a miner. In total, he has 30 sites across Moscow. The first in his biography was the Teply Stan station, after the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line he had the opportunity to work on the southern section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line, laying a metro to Moscow City, the last in the career of the veteran metro builder was the Dostoevskaya station.
– My first foreman was Vyacheslav Babkin, then there were foreman Andrey Tereshko, Viktor Efimov. The team is strong, good, there is a lot of manual labor, but no one shirked from their work. I maintained my health thanks to my comrades who always came to help,” recalls Andrei Valentinovich.
The future ultra-marathon runner, international master of sports, began playing sports in the fifth grade of school - he became interested in skiing and running. The young man joined the army as a candidate for master of sports in cross-country skiing, and his sports training came in handy. Zemtsov ended up in Afghanistan, served in battalion reconnaissance, and spent a whole year in Registan, a sandy desert in the southern part of the country, in difficult physical conditions.
– Nature gifted me with endurance, sometimes I spent three days without sleep, but I quickly recovered. In the army, I read an article about daily running, it was just in its infancy, adherents of this sport began to appear in the Union, I became interested in it,” says Zemtsov.
Returning from the army, Andrei got a job at Metrostroy, got married, had children, but did not give up the sport. I trained every day: either strength training or running. The turning point in his biography was the Krasnogorsk World Ski Championships among veterans. Zemtsov was inspired by athletes from different parts of the world, about whom one cannot even dare to say “veterans”. At the age of 40, he decided to take up daily running and set a goal for himself - to get into the Russian national team in this sport.
It took Andrei Valentinovich seven years to do this. In winter he participated in skiing (over 50 km), and in summer in athletics (over 42 km) ultramarathons.
“In the winter I ran 10–12 marathons, in the summer – the same number, gaining a running volume of 1500 km per month,” he recalls. – I was helped by the former sports organizer of Metrostroy Nikolai Akimov, as well as the management of TO-6 and Viktor Samara, who was then deputy chief engineer, who always met halfway.
To get into the Russian national team, you need to meet the master of sports standard - run 240 km per day. In 2010, Zemtsov won the Moscow 24-hour running championship with a result of 228 km. In 2011 at the Russian Championship he took second place with a result of 235 km. In 2012, at the national championship, he again took second place, losing to the famous ultramarathon runner Vladimir Bychkov, but at the same time ran 247 km and received a call to the Russian national team!
FOUR YEARS IN THE TEAM
Zemtsov was in the national team from 2012 to 2016 and participated in two world championships in 24-hour running - in Poland (2012) and the Netherlands (2013). Championships are usually held in the main park of the city. Athletes move in a circle 2 km long. In Katowice, Poland, Zemtsov took ninth place in the individual championship, running 250 km and fulfilling the standard of an international master of sports in athletics. Our team became fourth in Europe that year and fifth in the world.
A year later, in the Dutch Steenbergen, under pouring rain, the Russian team took second place among European teams. As the athletes themselves say, daily runners achieve their best results by the age of 50. For 48-year-old Zemtsov, this result becomes the pinnacle of his career.
“The day of daily running is remembered for the rest of my life, it’s like a day in the war, I remember all the days that I ran,” notes the athlete. – Eat on the go, stopping only for the toilet. The last six hours are the hardest, it’s better not to remember them. Sometimes the asphalt alternates with tiles or cobblestones, and your feet get smashed. By the way, after running for a day, recovery takes two months. This is a sport where you need to endure and show endurance.
VETERAN SPORT
Zemtsov has two daughters, of course, ski athletes, and two grandchildren. In addition to communicating with his family, today he is involved in the development of veteran sports. Together with his friends, he participates in ski marathons - from Murmansk to Tolyatti, and also competes for the Mosmetrostroy team at the annual Builders' Ski Track.
Andrei Valentinovich believes that sport prolongs life and saves from illnesses and depression.
– Metro construction workers have a hard job, so they need to be friendly with their health, do physical exercises, then they will be cheerful and have a completely different perception of life. Look at the marathon runners - they are all cheerful,” the runner sums up. – I like that a healthy lifestyle is being promoted today. I recently took part in the 10th anniversary Moscow Marathon and received a huge positive charge. 30 thousand people completed the distance; this never happened even in Soviet times. It’s a pleasure to be in such an atmosphere!