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We run for a good cause

We are a living community of people with passion for running, but also a with a will to give it a deeper meaning. We motivate and support each other - online in our Facebook group which already has more than 13,000 members, but also in the real world. We meet for runs in 32 cities across the Czech Republic already! During the advent, in races or just for everyday runs. Our motto is - We leave no one behind! We practice sports all year round, we proudly wear our Advenťák t-shirts and when registering for a race, the Team field always says Advenťák runners! Because that's what we are - a great team!

How do we help

Advent running

From 1st to 25th December we run every day - at least 30 minutes. This way we help ourselves to offset some of the Christmas cookies and eggnog, but most importantly, we help those, to whom their life was not so kind to. Advenťák runners themselves, but also our partner companies, turn the kilometers into donations. These then allow us to make the lives of our heroes a little better by financing their medical equipment or therapies.

Advenťák Run

We wanted to help even outside advent. Since 2020 we have another running Christmas in June - the Advenťák charity run. We meet in several cities and together we enjoy racing, great time and the feeling that warms our hearts more than the summer sun - the feeling you have, when you are helping those, who need your help.

Advenťák e-shop

To provide another option to help, we have created the Advenťák e-shop. Over there you can buy something nice for yourself or the ones closest to you all year round. And not just that - at least 50 CZK from everything you buy goes to those we are helping!

Podcast

We enjoy running even more when we have something to listen to! Are you the same? Especially for you, in December, we record a series of 25 podcasts with inspiring people. We talk about running, health and life in general. And you can listen to them (not just) during your advent runs.

How do we help

Heroes we are helping together

Pavlík

When little Pavlík came into the world four years ago, his start in life was anything but easy. Complications during birth meant he had to spend his first days in intensive care. Since then, both his and his family’s lives have been filled with doctors, therapy sessions, and daily challenges.

Štěpán

The story of 15-year-old Štěpánek began even before he was born, while he was still in his mother’s womb. Back then, he wasn’t alone — he was sharing that space with two siblings. Early in the pregnancy, doctors decided that one of the fetuses would need to be removed to increase the chances that at least two of the babies would be born completely healthy. Unfortunately, a tragic medical error occurred — the healthy fetus was terminated, and one of the remaining fetuses was injured. And so Štěpánek was born. At six months old, he had to undergo brain surgery to allow his brain to develop symmetrically. During an MRI scan, doctors diagnosed him with neurological brain damage accompanied by epilepsy, impaired interhemispheric communication, severe hypotonic syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Štěpánek is fully dependent on the help of others. He communicates with the world around him through a special sign language adapted to his limited motor skills and with the help of a tablet application that uses spoken pictograms. He enjoys ball games and exercising in a special gym designed for his needs. For the past few years, Štěpánek has lived with his mother and his twin brother Aleš.

Viktorka

Viktorka is a cheerful seven-year-old girl who came into the world under difficult circumstances — she was born with oxygen deprivation, hypotonia, and a large diastasis. Despite this, she was discharged from the hospital as an apparently healthy newborn. Over time, however, her development began to lag behind. When she was two years old, she finally underwent neurological examinations and her first stay at a rehabilitation spa, where she learned how to walk.

Lidka

Lidka is a 12-year-old girl who was born healthy. However, during her preschool years, she began experiencing weakness in her legs, balance problems, and severe fatigue. Over time, her condition gradually worsened, and after her eighth birthday, Lidka was diagnosed with a very rare genetic disorder: Gorden-Holmes and Boucher-Neuhauser syndromes. It is a progressive neuromuscular disease that affects both the lower and upper limbs as well as parts of the autonomic muscles. Retinal dystrophy is also sometimes present. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this condition.

Mia

Mia is a 2.5-year-old girl who has already experienced life in four different families and whose brain was damaged during birth due to oxygen deprivation. This little fighter has severe psychomotor developmental delays and currently functions at the level of a child around nine months old. She receives her nutrition through a tube directly into her stomach via a special pump and often vomits because she has severe reflux. Mia wears glasses with a +6.5 prescription to help her see the world, which fascinates her.

Amálka a Natálka

Natálka and Amálka were born prematurely as twins in the 29th week of pregnancy. Both girls have cerebral palsy, which affects their motor skills. Amálka can move partially on all fours, while Natálka is bedridden and suffers from severe spasticity in the muscles and joints of her limbs.

Tomášek

Tomášek was born eleven years ago, and right after birth, he wasn’t breathing. At first, none of the doctors knew what was wrong with him. It wasn’t until fourteen days later that one doctor thought he might have a very rare condition called Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS).

Terezka

Terezka is a beautiful thirteen-year-old girl who, almost three years ago, found herself in a completely different world. The family was just getting ready for a trip to the Beskydy Mountains, and Terezka went – as she always did – to dance in the small gym in the attic of their house. Unfortunately, she fell, and before anyone from the family could reach her to help her breathe again, she was left without oxygen for some time.

Filip

When Filípek was still in his mommy’s belly, he was a completely healthy baby. Unfortunately, complications occurred during his birth, and he was born showing no signs of life. The doctors managed to revive him, but the consequences of his difficult start in life are something he — and his whole family — carry to this day.

Dalibor

Dalibor is a five-year-old boy who loves swimming – and even competes in it – paraclimbing, and spending time with his best buddy, his three-year-old little brother Vilda. Starting in January, the two boys will attend the same kindergarten.

Eliška

Eliška is a young eighteen-year-old girl, a wonderful source of laughter and sunshine for everyone around her. Yet she is imprisoned in her own body. She was born as a long-awaited and miraculous child through IVF, initially completely healthy. In early childhood, she experienced difficulties with movement and proper turning, but these were successfully managed through rehabilitation.

Ella

Ellinka, who recently celebrated her sixth birthday, was born as the second child in her family. At first, everything was developing well, but at four months her mother noticed that she was using her left hand less. At six months, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy – left-sided hemiparesis.

Jakub

Kuba is a ten-year-old boy who lives with a rare, very severe, incurable, and drug-resistant form of epilepsy – Dravet syndrome, often referred to as catastrophic epilepsy. He experienced his first epileptic seizure as a six-week-old baby. Despite taking a combination of four medications, he still has several seizures every day – ranging from absences and myoclonic seizures to large, multi-minute convulsive seizures with loss of consciousness and stopped breathing, which can be life-threatening.

Jiří

Jiřík is a twenty-six-year-old young man who has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy – quadriparesis. He grew very quickly, unfortunately asymmetrically – the left side of his body is larger (a bigger hand, shoe size 36 compared to 34 on the right) – which led to the development of rotational scoliosis, significantly affecting his quality of life. Surgical intervention at his age and health condition is very risky, so the approach chosen was intensive rehabilitation to prevent the scoliosis from worsening.

Martínek

Martínek has been dependent on a wheelchair since a difficult birth and requires continuous, 24-hour care. He is very capable and cheerful, attends a special school, and enjoys learning new things.

Mia

Miuška is a six-and-a-half-year-old girl. If everything had been normal, she would be starting first grade this September, but for now she attends a special preschool and uses a wheelchair. Already at birth, it was discovered that during an apparently uncomplicated pregnancy she had suffered a brain hemorrhage – the consequences of which she still lives with today.

Nataniel

Nataniel is an eleven-year-old boy who is living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic condition. This disease causes the gradual weakening of all the muscles in the body, including those necessary for walking, breathing, and everyday activities. Since last year, Nataniel has unfortunately been unable to walk and is completely dependent on his mother’s continuous care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Peťulka

Péťa is a five-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This condition will gradually take away his strength, his ability to walk, and the ability to drink or feed himself. In addition, he struggles with developmental dysphasia – his speech corresponds roughly to that of a two-and-a-half-year-old – and attention deficit disorder (ADHD). The only medication that slightly slows the loss of his walking ability unfortunately causes a side effect in the form of high blood pressure.

Sašík

Sašík was born as a healthy boy who thrived during the first six months of his life. However, after his first year, he experienced a seizure in the form of convulsions, preceded by high fevers, and was taken to the hospital by the emergency medical service. Since then, he has been experiencing epileptic seizures and undergoing numerous regular examinations, during which hypotonia and delayed psychomotor development were diagnosed.

Sofinka

Eight-year-old Sofinka suffers from the most severe form of spinal muscular atrophy – a disease that takes away her muscles, her breath, and her ability to move. Yet she does not give up. Despite all the hardship she has endured in hospitals, despite the tens of thousands of kilometers she has had to travel for treatment, and despite her significant physical disability, she is a little girl who shares smiles with everyone around her. She is sociable, bright, and curious. She loves spending time with her friends, enjoys good food, educational programs, puzzles, and even school. She likes wearing dresses, getting into mischief, playing cards, reading books, and she absolutely loves swimming.

What's new

Big STRAVA update just for Advent runners

01. 04. 2026

We’ve got some big news for you all. And we truly believe every Advent runner will appreciate it — we’ve been calling for this for years (Help and Desk especially 😄). STRAVA is finally available in Czech! But that’s not even the biggest news of the day, because… 🎉🎉


For Advent Running, we’ve created a special version with a custom tweak we managed to negotiate just for us. So if you install STRAVA 8.0 – Advent Runners Edition 2026, you’ll no longer be giving and receiving those awkward generic kudos like everyone else… but Gingerbread Kudos instead!!!! 👍


At the same time, a new challenge will be added every month: Advent Pace 🏃‍♀️🏃 This tracks how many kilometers you manage to run in a month at a pace of 6:45 min/km. And after every run where you hit that pace, a little gingerbread icon will appear on the map 🤩


We’re absolutely thrilled we pulled this off — and we’re already open to ideas for further improvements.

What about tweaking something like the Local Legend feature? We’d love to get inspired… 😉

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