Lanzarote Marathon will be nº 200
Jan Paraniak from Sweden will race his marathon nº 200 in Lanzarote, on 1st December!

Swedish Jan Paraniak, born in 1950, will be at the start of the Ciudad de Arrecife Lanzarote Marathon next 1st December to race his 200th marathon race.

Because of this peculiarity, Jan contacted Club La Santa to be able tp race with race number 200. As that number corresponds to the¼ marathon though, this will not be possible, but Jan will get race number 1200 instead.

Thanks to this contact, we wanted to get to know Jan a little more and had a look at his website, www.paraniak.se

From there, the story of his father and family, that we are happy to report hereunder, as told on the above website. 

The Story of my father,Michal Paraniak
Michal was born 1925 in the town of Sanok, in the Carpati Mountains. He's one of four children to Jan and Anjla Paraniak. The names of his siblings were Josef (probably born in 1923), Janka (born in 1927) and Anna (born in 1929).

Jan's profession was as officer in the Polish army, and the family therefore moved about to Ternopil and different places in the east of Poland. Michal moved at the age of 12 with the rest of the family to Lwow, then a Polish city but now situated in Ukraine. They lived on street 29 Listopada no. 11, at the ground floor.

Summer vacations were spent in Sanok. In 1939 Michal and Josef was there visiting their relatives. Jan had two sisters but also the family of Anjla stayed in Sanok. Michal's parents and sisters were still in Lwow. As the war fully broke out, with Germany's invasion of Poland, Michal and Josef couldn't return to Lwow and their family. The German army and their underlings had then started to deport prisoners of war to Germany and different labour- and death camps.

In the year of 1940 Michal and Josef were taken to Linz in Germany. They were at that time 15 and 17 years old. As they arrived in Linz they were pushed to different pens, Michal in one direction and Josef in another. That was the last he saw of this brother.
Michal survived all the ordeals of the war and was liberated by American soldiers. Thanks to them, he could return to Poland and look for relatives, which he did between 1945 and 1948. What he found was that his mother and sisters were sent to Siberia, to where they however never arrived. It is believed that they died on their way there, but this has not been confirmed. Jan was taking part in the defence at the battle of Warsaw and never returned. What happened to Josef after the separation in Linz has never been found out.

Michal left Poland 1949 and came to Sweden. After deciding to stay here, he happened to meet his future wife, Elsy, in Norrköping. They got married and had four children, and I'm one of them. I have been given my grandfathers name, a name a carry with pride, and I'm hoping that his name can continue to live through generations to come, to preserve the memory of him.
If someone reading this knows, or knows of someone who do know anything about what happened to the family Paraniak of Sanok, I'd very much like you to make yourself known to me. We're still hoping that Josef or one of the sisters did survive. The possibilities right after the war ended to clarify what happened was of course obstructed by all the chaos that prevailed in Europe. I'm grateful for all the information I could get.
Jan Paraniak, 2003-12-22
jan@paraniak.se

Jan Paraniak's marathon races:

1        Stockholm Marathon              1982     4:29:14
2        Stockholm Marathon              1983     3:26:42
3        Västerås Marathon                 1983     4:01:48
4        Stockholm Marathon              1984     3:22:14
5        Oslo Marathon                       1984     3:11:12
6        Vintermarathon Stockholm     1984     3:48:54
7        Östgöta Marathon                  1985     3:12:18
8        Stockholm Marathon              1985     3:29:18
9        Östgöta Marathon                  1986     3:28:27
10      Stockholm Marathon              1986     3:34:00
11      London Marathon                   1988     3:26:36
12      Stockholm Marathon              1988     3:08:10
13      Helsinki City Marathon           1988     3:39:38
14      New York City Marathon         1988     3:34:35
15      Stockholm Marathon              1989     3:21:05
16      Östgöta Marathon                  1989     3:22:32
17      Stockholm Marathon              1990     3:13:37
18      Berlin Marathon                     1990     3:22:33
19      London Marathon                   1991     3:40:06
20      Stockholm Marathon              1991     3:28:33
21      Rotterdam Marathon              1992     2:58:48
22      Stockholm Marathon              1992     3:27:20
23      Örebro City Marathon            1992     3:31:27
24      Athen Marathon                    1992     3:26:17
25      Apeldoorn Marathon              1993     3:58:22
26      Vällingby Marathon                1993     3:37:33
27      Skara Marathon